Very hot trans on 88 2001

Bought a 1988 2001 Nautique with quite abit of use. Ive had it out a few times, each time it ran great. Yesterday I took it out and after less then 30 minutes of pulling a skier it got sluggish. It was nearly impossible to shift into neutral or reverse. Smelled trans fluid so I opened the motor cover and saw a good amount of oil in the bilge area. I could feel the heat off the trans so I put a few drops of water on to it. Boiled right off! Saw water in the cooling line filter flowing, so I think thats OK. Checked fluid level in trans, after it cooled enough to touch, that was OK, not milky. Limped it back to the dock, luckily I wasnt far away. I let it cool down a few hours before I took it back to the ramp, and it felt good, and shifted fine, but after a few minutes it went back to hard shifting, and heating up the trans.
Anyway sorry for the long post, Ive searched as much as I could before I posted here, and didnt find much like my problem. Im pretty mechanical, and not afraid to rip it apart if I gotta, but I was hoping someone here might help me with a quick fix.

did you feel slippage? but Pete is correct, you need to pull a cooler line and see how much fluid is going to the cooler circuit, Ive seen (2) over the years that i could not figure out why they were heating up, but i did pull the cooler line and notice oil was way down on flow. it seemed on the 2 oil was dumping into the case....if you can, please list anything else you can think of such as a crimped line or seaweed in the strainer, anything different than normal

Another question before I start working on my baby. Can I run the boat in gear while it is out of the water? Ive read up on how to hook the cooling system up to a big bucket of water, to test the vacuum of the water pump. But I thought Ive heard something about not wanting to spin the shaft while it is dry.

Ahh. Thats what I was afraid of. I guess I can disconnect the drive shaft, or something. I wish I lived on a lake, or had a big pool, so I could test it in the water. Unfortunatly Im gonna have to test it in the driveway.

From what I've seen around this board, once a transmission gets in trouble, it needs going through. Eric's gear spa and done. And no, he won't pay me a commission.

Allright, just in case anyone is still reading this. I just ran the boat. Hooked up a hose to a bucket filled to the level of the bottom of the boat, and continually filled the bucket with another hose. The the water got sucked in no problem. Ran the boat for a minute with no temp problems. Put the boat in gear with the driveshaft disconnected. At idle, i was able to stop the output of the trans with my foot, but if I revved it, it would catch. The trans never got too hot, my laser temp gauge said 140 after a few minutes. I disconnected the cooling hose while it was running, and at first, fluid came out, but then stopped. I tried this on both the inlet and outlet hoses on the trans. Same thing. Im guessing the pump isnt putting out enough pressure? I would imagine it should flow more. Help?

I probably should send it to him, but Ive got pride about fixing things myself. Ive rebuilt a few motors and trans on cars and motorcycles, and I feel confident I can do this, with help. Also, my Dad was a TV repairman, so Ive got a killer set of tools.

Cool. thanks Eric. If I chicken out on this, do you have an estimate that you could give me?

Agentsmith wrote: you need to pull a cooler line and see how much fluid is going to the cooler circuit.

Nina,
Josh already confirmed a low to no oil flow to the trans cooler.

omegajosh wrote: I disconnected the cooling hose while it was running, and at first, fluid came out, but then stopped. I tried this on both the inlet and outlet hoses on the trans.

It sounds like you have experience with the problem. What would be his next step?

Well, for those of you interested, I pulled the trans yesterday, and didnt see anything interesting. I was thinking I would see oil everwhere on the front pump, but it was dry and very rusty. Turns out the trans I bought to replace it was clocked the same on the oil pump too. I put the "new" trans in, I have no idea what model it is, but it bolted right up. It had a couple of differences, like the dipstick had to be removed with a box end wrench. But I got it up and running and it seems to work great, in my driveway at least. Fluid flowing through the cooling lines, shifting good. Im gonna take it out on the lake maybe in a week or two, and then start ripping into the blown trans.

Eric,
When you get a older bushed Velvet in, do you or can it even be converted to bearings?

Just in case anyone is still here.
Took in my original trans to get a pro to diagnos it. Turns out the pump was way worn, and wasnt building up enough pressure to make it to the cooling circuit. Hopefully it gets rebuilt before this weekend, cause the $200 trans I got to replace it is about toast. Im planning on a good long weekend at Lake Nac, and Im taking plenty of sunblock.

He gave me a estimate of 1000 dollars. Seemed abit high to me, but he listed all the fried stuff and it checked out. I could have saved a few bucks by going through the internet and buying it all, and putting it together myself, but I have been having bad luck fixing things lately.

There was another member just recently that took his trans to some "pros" in CA. Still didn't work and I think he ended up having to send it to eric anyway. I'd think twice about what your plan of action. You've already spent 200 on the spare trans and now are going to spend another 1k. Just send it to eric and be done with it. If not, i'm guessing this thread will end up a page or two longer...

daddyo, shoot me an email. dwcar@yahoo.com