V-drive removal- rebuild
 

Any tips for removing a walter v-drive from my Centurion Avalanche? Anyone ever changed the gears themselves? I am going to change out the gears to the new ratio, from 1:1 to 1:146 This should help with what weight I am running. Walter says it's not a hard project. Model number is RV-26D. Any help would be great!

Thanks

Duffy

If gear reduction is what you are after, I would keep trying lower pitch props before doing major surgery unless there is another reason to pull the tranny.

I have the lowest pitch prop out, it's a custom acme 911. My boat has 1:1 ratio so I would like to change it to what most boats have now. 1:1.46

What is your shaft diameter? I thought that drive reduction ran 1&1/4" and 1:1 ran 1". Are you worried the extra torque of reduction will twist the shaft?

It's the exact same v-drive and shaft. You only change 1 gear in the v-drive. Centurion and a lot of boats come with the 1:1.46 ratio now. Basically from what I read, boat manu had to change the ratio because of how much weight people run etc..

Well before you go ripping out your tranny..What are you looking to accomplish?

What type of motor? You're going to loose alot of top end going to that ratio.

How much weight are you running?

I mainly surf and I would be changing to a diff prop for better top end, but mostly so the boat doesn't have to work so hard. I run around 2k for surfing and my 315hp motor is about maxed out. Acme props is actually who suggested the move.

I'm assuming the 315 is some sort of TBI motor? Depending on what you want to spend you can look at stainless steal headers, Heads, blower etc.

One thing to consider once you pull that tranny out is if you've been running 2000lbs of weight you might want to consider doing a rebuild.

Boat runs great. The ratio is something boat manu changed to a few years back. I can get a brand new v-drive with the correct ratio for around $800. I bet it will save me close to that in gas the first summer of heavy use.

When was the last time you talked to ACME? They are working on a new prop that is similar to the 911, but geared toward the surfing. Call and talk to Bill Weeks.

That's basically the prop i have in the classified section. It's just a more extreme 911.

Not sure why everyone is down on this. Makes a lot of sense to me. It should not be that difficult. Remove all the interior that is anywhere near being in the way for access and to keep from tearing it up. After that it should be about 8 bolts and a couple hoses and wires, and the V-drive should be in your lap.

Headers and a blower, you're talking $8000+ instead of $800, probably very little improvement down low in the RPM range where you need it, and less reliability to boot.

I am with Trace. Since he is not messing w the motor mounts the alignment shouldnt be an issue. I would go ahead and invest in a dripless shaft while you are at it...along with replacing the clutches in the tranny (if you dont go new) and the seals. Aside from that remember to follow some break in procedures with the new or newly rebuilt tranny. Heck I would even look into modding the bottom of the tranny with a drain so you can do more thorough oil changes.

The V-drive is actually separate unit from the tranny. He should be able to pull the Vdrive alone, which is about the size of a (solid steel) shoe box.

Well I bought a new v-drive from centurion. It's old new stock and I picked it up for $750. This will allow me to change my prop from a 911 to a acme 1579. This should increase water bite and also improve my boat by up to %50 overall. At least that's what acme and centurion say. Centurion says it's a 2 hour or less project. Just a few boltls etc.... I thought that the prop shaft was aligned at the v-drive?

Ahh, you are right. I misread. I was thinking of pulling the Tranny along w the V-drive.

what year avalanche? we had to have our engine pulled to replace the v drive on our 03 avalanche

I can get to all the bolts on my 03. Shouldn't have to remove the engine. I will let everyone know exact how are the removal is. Worst comes to worse I will pull some of the interior out to remove it.

how will you pull it out? our shop seemed to think it wouldnt fit out any openings without pulling the engine

Weird it's actually pretty small. I will let you know if it's not easy. Centurion said it's a breeze. Hopefully nothing goes wrong:)

Done took around 45 minutes. Worst part was the tight squeeze and also not getting all the oil totally out so my bildge is oily now. Here are some pictures.

did you pull it out through the opening under the seat?

Yep, it came straight out. You have to rotate the unit 180 degrees and pull the part that attaches to the tranny out first. Then the whole thing just pulled out.

Danny, I would talk to your shop. That sucks that you had to pull the engine! Thinking about installing a dripless shaft seal. Any thoughts?

i got charged for 30 hours...maybe it will take you 29 to put back in. haha

Dude that is lame, took me less than an hour. Putting it back in should be faster.

do you have the walk through or wrap around seating? the only thing i can think of is the opening under the seat is smaller on the boats with the walk through?

I might have to go have soe words with the shop...they have always come highly recommended on here.

I have a C4, so wrap around seating. Measure your opening. I will do the same.

my boats about an hour away so i will have to check next time i see it.

BTW, you will love the 1:146 ratio

I hope it helps my boat run weight. I am going to get an acme 1579 along with it.

Duffy,

I was talking to Bill Weeks about my boat (Sanger V230) and what prop to run. He mentioned that with the size of my boat and the amount of ballast I"m running, he said that changing the 1:1 gearing to a 1.46:1 would dramatically change the hole shot and performance of the boat.

I saw that you changed your V-Drive to a 1:46 from a 1:1, how do you like it?

I'm really curious to see if this is worth doing.

Thanks,

-Tom

Hi Duffy or Tom,

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I couldn't seem to get private messages working for some reason. Did either of you follow through with re-gearing from 1:1 to 1:1.46. I've got a Sanger V215 that struggles with ballast at high altitude and am interested in re-gearing to move up to a 4 blade prop. Did it help your holeshot? What prop did you end up using? Was it worth the hassle/money?

Thanks!
Mike

This is an old thread! I did do it, I did it cheap, so i think it was totally worth it. It seemed to fix my issues with speed holding etc..

Thanks for entertaining my old thread resurrection! ;) Did you just replace the gears yourself? Just got the rebuild kit from Walter directly? What prop did you end up with?

No I got an entire new v-drive from centurion for less then 1k. I just swapped the whole thing. I believe I went to the 1579 prop after. I now have a Tige and rock a 5 blade prop which I love!!

Moral of the story....just get a different boat with what you want and be done with it. :)

Can't tell you how many times I have spent a lot of time fixing/modifying something only to sell it shortly after and get what really wanted.

I loved the avalanche! I just didn't like how low it sat while sacked out. I didn't feel comfortable with it.

you sayin you don't like the Gangsta lean? :D

My lake get 3-5' swells that come out of no where. They scare me and sinking it before summer and having everyone freeze to death scares me:)

yeah that kind of listing should be reserved for glass days when you're the only one out

we don't get swells but I have been out on weekends with at least 150 boats on the lake and all kinds of chop, and have never even came close to sinking it in the last 8 years of listing like this but yes you better be on top of things. If I only went when it was glass, I would not get much riding time LOL

Just curious, did you happen to notice a change in fuel economy?

When I swapped from gas to diesel, I actually went the other way to make use of the lower rpm and higher torque rating. Switched from 1:1.46 with 14x18 to 1:1 with 14.5x12. Huge improvement in acceleration and speed holding for me. Fuel use went from 5gph to about 3.75.

Too bad I didn't see this earlier. I got the 1.46 drive laying in the garage.

By the way, for anyone else interested, gear sets/ gaskets are $500 from Walter. Easy to change. They offer a 1.2x:1. That with a large diameter low pitch prop is a good match for gas engines and wakeboard speeds.

Yeah I saw your picture of the boat fully loaded. My god it looked like it was sinking. That's why the new boats have another foot of freeboard! I'm saving that picture on my iPhone to show my buds here on Deep Lake. Friggin awesome image of what some folks will do to make a monster wake!

Bet that Tige is a monster! Pics???