I'm not terribly impressed with Hurth transmissions. I had a 100 mated to a
35hp Perkins in my Westsail 32 that failed after only a couple of hundred
hours. I had it rebuilt, and then it failed again. Thinking the
transmission was simply too lightweight to shove the Westie around, I
replaced it with a 150, a much huskier transmission. (None of these
shenanigans were covered by Hurth, btw.) That seemed to do the trick, and
two subsequent owners of the boat, as far as I know, have not had any
further problems.

We now have a Victory Tug with a 150 hp. Cummins and a Borg Warner Velvet
Drive transmission: a truly honkin' gearbox.

Bottom line: in my experience, the Hurth transmissions are at least suspect.

Dick Behan
M/V "Annie"


"Jim" wrote in message
ups.com...
I replaced the Hurth HBW100 transmission on an 18-hp Universal diesel I
owned a few years back. The original transmission simply refused to
engage in forward. Reverse, OK. I was told at the time that replacement
would be almost as cheap as rebuilding. Maybe, maybe not. Now, I have
another boat with an HBW100 transmission. The previous owner had
trouble with the original unit. He replaced it, and the new
transmission did not perform well. Hurth replaced that transmission
ultimately. He sold the boat to me, and now I'm having trouble with the
second new transmission, although it has very few hours. Is there a
problem with these units I don't know about? Is there another make of
transmission that would slip seamlessly into the hole left by a Hurth
transmission? BTW, for the earlier poster: Replacement isn't hard if
you can get at your unit. I think folks have already made that point.