Karl Fixes the Transmission--with advice from friends

White Pepper has been crippled with transmission problems this year. While entering Exuma Park earlier this year the transmission collapsed. We could only make 1 knot forward at best. The last time this happened we had no forward power at all. We have spent most of this month at anchor waiting for the winds to change so we could limp back to Florida. I even took out a policy with Sea Tow.

I complained to a fellow cruiser, Ron from Ursa Minor. He casually told me he had fixed this kind of problem by adding diesel fuel to the transmission fluid. Naturally, I was skeptical. Long time readers of this blog will remember that White Pepper had similar problems at Oriental, NC. She was in the yard for all of October 2008 and paid a $4,000 yard bill for a used friction plate. A new friction plate would have been the same price but taken another 3 or 4 months to come from Japan.

I called on the sat phone my old friend and mechanic, Don Gallant, of Gulfstream Marine in Corpus Christi. He was gracious enough to take my call on a Saturday. Indeed his son, Blake, was getting married that day. He did say that glazing could be the problem, and diesel would help dissolve the glaze. He made some suggestions.

The next day, Palm Sunday 2014, I did pull 600 cc of brand new ATF fluid out of the transmission and replaced it with 600 cc of fresh diesel. The unit's capacity is 700 cc. I expected a loud bang or maybe a “thunk” when I started up the engine. Jan was at the helm while I kept an eye on the anchor. To our absolute astonishment the old girl leapt forward when Jan engaged forward gear. We put the transmission in forward and reverse for a few seconds at a time about 10 times. I wanted to take a little walk about, but Jan pointed out that the transmission was working fine and indeed had never felt or sounded better.

I pulled out over 700 cc of fluid from the transmission which seemed to me to be a good sign. I then added 600 cc of ATF fluid and as a nod to Ron 100 cc of diesel. Tomorrow will tell if the fix holds.

Also I have to wonder if this procedure would have worked in 2008 avoiding a huge delay and yard bill?

The engine and transmission have other problems. The transmission is clearly leaking fluid and not performing well even before glazing up. The engine over heats and feels like it's on its last legs after 28 years. Looking back on this year it was madness to set off without a re power, but next year is another year.