No Forward Gear?

So the last time I took my boat out I reversed off the dock and into the lake only to find out the the boat wouldn't go into drive (forward). It appears that it wasn't shifting into forward gear and staying in neutral and just reving the engine when I pushed on the throttle.

Before this time out I had the doghouse off and was working on fixing an overheating issue and replaced the thermostat. When I fired up the engine I heard a squealing noise that seemed to be coming from the transmission - even though the boat was in neutral and just being reved. I did some reading on this and other posts suggested it could be the dampner plate.

So, to get back to the dock I had my wife give it just a bit of throttle and then bumped the transmission into drive and the transmission engaged and went fine - but once it went back into neutral I had to do the same thing again to get the boat to drive forward.

So what would you think the problem is? Any thoughts?

1989 Ski Nautique 2001

I would assume its a first year first generation PCM transmission? sounds like a cracked forward drum and by revving the engine it brings the volume of oil up to over come the crack and goes into gear

Whomever,
It's not a dampner. If it was totally blown, you wouldn't have reverse. Do as suggested and manually move the shift lever on the trans and check that you move the helm control the cable is moving/shifting the trans as well. Report back but I'll bet Eric is correct. When it comes to trans problems, he usually is!!