Transmission problem?
 

Did a quick search but didn't find much. I have a '97 Malibu vlx with the walter v drive. I was out today and yesterday, everything worked good and normal but when we were going to head in I started to take off got up to about 10 mph and the boat seemed like it just kicked into neutral. No loud clunks or no bad sounds. Now it just acts like it won't go into gear and the drive shaft after the V drive won't turn when it is put into gear. Is there a sensor that I could check or something I could look into or does this sound like a blown tranny. All the linkage appears to work and the lever on the tranny looks like it moves with the throttle movement.

yeap, the tranny is toast. most likely the gearbox bolted to the bellhousing.

Pull the dipstick out of trans and see of the oil looks like metal flake paint should be red oil also give it a sniff to check if it's burnt . While your at it have you ever cleared the trans cooler of debris?

I checked the tranny fluid and it looked normal but it has been quite a while since I have checked the tranny cooler.

Can you see the coupler that holds the drive shaft moving ? I ask because sometimes they are hard to see down there and I had a similar situation happen to me a month ago . Turns out the square stock key that locks the driveshaft in place sheared off and the coupler would spin but not the shaft asit would slip inside the coupler which was hard to see with out getting down there close . Might get lucky and just need a new shaft . good luck

have had coupler key fall out as well. sounds like your issue, definitely check it first

I will definitely be checking that out.

Like stated above, you need to have a look at the coupler to make sure it's turning while in gear. If that checks out, look under the boat and make sure the shaft hasn't slid back towards the rudder and the keyway fell out at the coupler. If all of that is fine, then the bands are just wore out in the transmission and you'll have to have it rebuilt.

What can I expect a tranny rebuild to cost.

Also take a mirror and light and make sure the keyway didn't shear in half and the shaft is spinning in the coupler as well. I forgot to mention that as well. Rebuild could be anywhere from about $600 to probably $2000 depending on if you take the trans out and bring to the shop or if you have the shop do everything start to finish.

Well I ripped all my seats out of the boat and brought it to a Malibu dealer. They didn't do a whole lot just smelled the tranny fluid and said it smelled burnt. I asked them if they had a place to rebuild the tranny and they said they didn't. They just wanted to buy a new one and throw it in. I did look at the coupler and do not believe it is a broken key. The tranny is a ZF Hurth 45 C with the Walter V drive adapter. I found the same tranny for $1500 but it doesn't have the Walter adapter part. Going to check to see if that part comes off my current tranny.

On another note, all the years I have learned a ton of info on Wake World, I never knew there was a tranny filter on the bottom side of the tranny. I am going to check that out in the next couple of days. I have about 8 months before the boat needs to be ready for the lake so I will be checking around to come up with the most cost effective way of getting this done.

First thing I would check is the shift cable and visually confirm it is moving the shift linkage on the transmission then go from there before just dropping coin and throwing parts at it

I checked the trans cooler and it was pretty clean. I did take the linkage off of the tranny and shifted it into gear manually and it did nothing.