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Last year when I was changing the fluid in my drive water was present. I took it to the marina to have the seals replaced and flushed. While it was there, they found the splined sleeve was damaged so replaced it as well as the gimbal bearing.

Yesterday was the first day I’ve used the boat since the repair. I unloaded off the trailer then docked without a problem. We cruised for about 2 hours then went to cove out for a bit. After slowing down I went to drop it into neutral. The shifter would not click into neutral and obviously reverse.

Thankfully I didn’t shut the boat off and made it back to the dock. It was interesting offloading my spouse to get the trailer then loading onto the trailer but we escaped without issues.

I took the boat directly to the marina that did the work. He pulled the shift cable off and still wasn’t able to shift to neutral. He was however able to put very firm pressure on the mechanism which allowed it to shift. He wanted the boat for a few days to look a little deeper. Any ideas what’s going on? Does this sound like a clutch issue?

Could be a cone clutch stuck as usually a low fluid hot or overheating condition can do this.
Keep us posted.

And have the folks get you Volvo Orings ( I changed mine every time..) as you obviously know how to do fluid.
Volvo gear oil is proprietary as you know!

Marina called back today. Clutch needs to be replaced. They’re saying the fluid didn’t cause this. I disagreed as what they put in it doesn’t meet Volvo spec. I also told them they had it all apart, this wasn’t noted as damaged/worn and this was the first run after repair. The boat has right around 400 hours on it with religious maintenance.

As my luck will have it, the marina changed owners over the last few months. We’ll see how this goes, the new owner is supposed to be calling back soon. Hopefully they do the right thing.

You can also get hard shifting with an over filled drive. Did you check fluid level?

Hopefully, they don't use gear oil meant for a rear axle with a limited slip differential. This type fluid is specifically not to be used by Volvo which is why I switched from Mobil-1 when they started using it.

It was more than hard shifting... there was no shifting. I did not check the fluid level as I took it straight back to the marina. Per the invoice Mercury HP gear oil is what was installed.

Another update, spoke to the original repairer again. They are refusing to work on the boat any further. I picked it up and took it to the Cobalt dealer. They’re booked out until late July or maybe even August. I should have taken it to them for the last repair but at the end of last year their schedule was full.

AdamIPS wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 10:49 pm It was more than hard shifting... there was no shifting. I did not check the fluid level as I took it straight back to the marina. Per the invoice Mercury HP gear oil is what was installed.

That should be fine. That did not cause your failure.