Free wheeling a prop while under way.

Hey boyz,
It's been while since I have had any issues....but sure enjoy reading the posts. I had an issue today and need to know if I did any damage.
On a return run to my home port....I had an engine stall and quit. (I run on 1986 twin 454 FWC Crusaders with Velvet drives)

I dropped my rpm's to 1500 on my good engine and was making 4.8 kts. I left the stalled engine to free wheel while I headed to port. It took me 2.5 hrs to limp home. (San Francisco Bay) Was this the right course of action or should I have left it in gear? I looked around to see if there were any posts on this subject and did not see any.


Please advise and as always much appreciated on the help.

Northern Lights.

You might have simply wrapped something in the prop. I would have tried a restart and, if okay, slipped her into reverse. I've cleared a bunch of crap tangled in the prop that way.

Hope that's all it is.

Jeff

It kind of depends on what shaft seals you have. If you have drippless shaft seals (PYI) that use raw water from that engine, there could be some damage to the shaft. If you have drippless seals from Norscot (they use ATF to cool/lubricate shaft) then no big deal. If you have the normal shaft seals with flax pacing, no big deal either. Just a note.. When I was running a TowBoat US vessel, We always had the captain of the disabled vessel to tie or use a wrench to lock the shaft.

Very unlikely you hurt anything at displacement speeds. The VD is rated for freewheeling prop shafts. Even if you had dripless shaft bearings, they will be wet at low speeds. Now, if you are being TOWED at planning speeds, that is a different story. When the engine is not running, the shift position has no effect inside the transmission.

diver_dave said:

Very unlikely you hurt anything at displacement speeds. The VD is rated for freewheeling prop shafts. Even if you had dripless shaft bearings, they will be wet at low speeds. Now, if you are being TOWED at planning speeds, that is a different story. When the engine is not running, the shift position has no effect inside the transmission.

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Thank you very much for your input. I appreciate that help. Safe boating for the holidays.