advice needed - possible transmission seal blown.

hi guys,

finally got my boat finished on sat night after many of failed deadline attempts (will post all u pic lovers some photos below) its a 87 2001 nautique with the 5.7 ford windsor.

having spent a fortune and after nearly 4 months working 3 nights a week we gave the boat a final polish and headed for the river.

on trial on sat night everything was grand, put the boat back in on sunday afternoon and had a great afternoons wake boarding..

however... whilst i was on tow, the boat died and i sank just about as quick as my heart did. (the reason for the complete restoration was because at the end of last season the last 3 nights on water the boat failed every time for some stupid reason or another    


anyways to cut a long story shorter the boat had lost forward drive unless she was being revved very hard, and there was a definite smell of burnt oil.. not to mention a bilge full of it.

after a painstakingly slow run back to the jetty on tick over we came to the conclusion that the seal has gone between the transmission housing and the engine as the gear oil was pissing down the front of the housing as quick as we were topping it up with new oil.. and a lack of oil in the system means a lack of pressure under load and as a result no forward drive!?

going to take it out and have a closer inspection 2moro night.. any advice on what others might think it could be is welcome and also anything else that is prone to go that i should fix or replace at the same time..

everything else of the boat has been replaced apart from the shaft, seal, engine and transmission so might as well go the whole hog and do it too..

thanks in advance.
before pic

Time for a tranny rebuild. Did you do anything with the engine during your rebuild process?
Most people just go ahead and rebuild the tranny when they go through this process while it's out of the boat and out of commission for a while anyway. Especially if they're freshening up the engine.
If you don't you'll usually end up doing exactly what you're faced with right now. Pulling it out all over again and getting it rebuilt.