Velvet drive w/no reverse?

Hi all, been lurking here back when I was looking for a Nautique and frequent it for tech advice still, but first time posting. I've read enough to know that "see what Eric says" may be one of the first responses I've got an '88 Supra Sunsport with a PCM 351 and Velvet Drive 1:1, same drivetrain as the Nautiques so that's why this site is a better resource than most others I've seen. It's got about 810 hours and when I bought it last Spring the seller said that the tranny was rebuilt 4 years prior.

The story is: last year on the water my shifter assmembly was coming loose in the middle of an evening wakeboarding session, so I was just being careful with it (it was still shifting just fine), and never had shifting issues forward/reverse prior to this. We're heading back to dock as the sun is going down and when I go to reverse at the dock to slow down, I have no reverse. It just revs up but no power. I figure it to be a linkage issue but after tightening the shift assembly back down I still had no reverse. If I rev it up a lot, the shaft starts spinning but not enough to move the boat. I was expecting the worst at the time so I never got it looked at, and we've put about 50 hours on since then with no problems in the forward gear. I changed the trans fluid and played with linkage here and there, but no reverse still.

So the question is, is it possible the pump isn't putting out enough pressue to get in reverse? Or do I just need a rebuild? I get no chattering or noise from the tranny in the forward gear, and no noise when going into reverse--it just won't engage. I'm thinking if I need a rebuild that I'll buy a used known-working trans that's for sale near me and send mine to Eric eventually for a rebuild, unless it's a possibility that something stupid is causing this. I've got a two-week lakeside vacation coming up in July so it'd be nice to have reverse, although I've gotten used to not having it already, haha. Thoughts?

ya, I like to think reverse is pretty important. The same thing happened to me and I was due for a full rebuild. Everything was toast but reverse was the first to give out.

What causes snapped reverse plates? And should I worry about forward going out soon too? I know I should just get it rebuilt now but with my luck it wouldn't be back together for my 17-day vacation.

you make the decision on whether to use the boat, typically a worn damper, hard shift, or wear and tear will snap the plates, not an isolated problem, very common

And by the way, I checked the model of my tranny today and it's the Velvet Drive 10 17 004, not the 71c I assumed originally.

10-17 is the same, updated version with 2 reverse plates instead of one, also it is a seal ring planetary instead of a bushing planet, always look for the 10-17 when replacing because of the upgrades