Carver Owners Forum

My name is Armin, I just purchased a 1996 Carver 320 Voyager in Upper Chesapeake Bay and am bringing her down to Miami. We have already had one mechanical issue with the port engine which caused me to loose RPMs. This turned out to be large ethanol nuggets in the pancake filter forward of the engine. Yesterday my v drive on the stbd engine clanked to a halt. In the process of looking for a rebuilt core exchange. Walter is asking $3,750 for a new drive. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Welcome!

Sorry to hear of your woes. Hopefully in your neck of the woods there are enough boat yards that may have a matching transmission or be able to rebuild? Did you buy the boat with any kind of warranty? Also, check with your insurance to determine the deductible and what it would do to your annual premium if you file a claim.

Good luck!

Wish I could help.
But, welcome aboard and I hope the rest of your trip is better!

Welcome aboard.
Check with Marine Connection Liquidators in Fort Pierce. They may have one that was salvaged. You should also try eBay and a Google search.

Welcome Aboard. We are sorry to hear about your shakedown cruise difficulties. Lot's of knowledge here. Someone will be able to assist. Hope you get the problem fixed soon and have a trouble free rest of your cruise.

Welcome, You will find all your answers here for sure, hope things go better for you!!!!!

Fast Forward to today...I had to buy a new V-Drive due to the difficulty in finding a new or rebuilt V-Drive with the same gear ratio as the one on my boat. Once you call Walter and give them the serial number for your V-Drive you will no longer be able to purchase a V-Drive from a reseller. I could have purchased a V-Drive for $800 less than the price through Walter, however any reseller calling Walter with the serial number from my V-Drive was told they would not be able to receive the V-Drive from Walter. Search around first and then go to Walter as a last resort. That said, Walter did give me good support and a quick turn around.

Thanks for the update Armin. Glad it worked out for you. Didn't know that about Walter, it's curious though, I never ran into that issue before.

Interesting business practice to say the least...

bud37 wrote:Source of the post Interesting business [s]practice[/s] scam to say the least...

Sounds like a "borderline illegal" activity to me! It would motivate me to find an alternative out there somewhere.

Great that you got the replacement though. Curious what happened to the old one? Did you have to return it as a core? Did someone do any forensics on it to determine what failed?