J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Rhapsody Transom Re-core and Other Areas Too

Al - Thanks for the comments. I thought about replacing the drive cone and have read on various other forums with people who had success by just removing the glazed surface. My take is that the clearances would only change if the cone was worn, and if that happened, there would be metal bits in the the oil. Since the oil was the original honey color and I didn't see any particulates, the drive cone should be good. I'm also lightly lapping the cone surface to remove any glaze on it. Regarding automobile clutches - these are a different animal as the clutch plate has pads that actually do wear and you see dust collected inside the bell housing.

As it stands, I'm only out my labor and a tube of gasket sealer for the transmission case to bell housing joint. The problem I had was the engine would not easily engage in forward gear when warmed up. I had to run the engine through various RPMs before the clutch would engage. It would engage just fine when the engine was cold. This will either fix it, or I'll be in the same state I was before the rebuild. Besides, it gives me boat work to do in the basement when it's 20 degrees outside.

If this doesn't fix it, I'll take it apart next winter and put in a new drive cone. With the parts in hand, the entire rebuild in my basement would take less than 3 hours now that I know how it is assembled and adjusted.