Repairing Volvo Saildrive Oil Leak

[Irish rambler]

I apologize for my tongue in cheek, colemj (and anyone else who may have been) offended, or, should that be foot in mouth jokey comment ? In UK/Ireland Volvo heavily discount marine engines and sail drives to boat builders to get sales and to acquire the captive aftersales market in spares and repairs which are proven to be at the high end cost wise. For that reason quite a few owners choose alternative makes. As a diesel engineer by training I was taught that there is a technical reason for every fault, I will restrict my comments to those in future.

[Sid at SailAway]

Originally Posted by Melani

Hi Sid at SailAway,

I cleaned the gear box with paper until all oil was wiped and made sure no oil in rubber diaphram. I then ran the engine for about an hour at high revs. Once back in the marina and on inspection, I saw oil at the filler stick and oil running down the leg extraction pipe and at the nut at the bottom of the extraction pipe. There was a small amount already in the grooves of the rubber diaphram.
So I presumed that the oil had leaked whilst running the engine under pressure.
Reverse was only selected to get back into the pen and when going out I went into forwards and took the revs up to 2800. Oil is still clean, not brown or milky.
Dipstick shows oil level at bottom line. ???

Derek

PS. Can anyone tell me whether or not the gear box should be filled with auto transmission fluid or engine oil as I have conflicting reports?

The reason I asked is that I assumed the oil was coming from the dipstick also. But then I noticed small pools of oil above the dipstick and around the mounting plate where the shift rod enters the drive. Figuring all that oil wasn't traveling upwards I then suspected the mounting plate. I removed the plate and resealed it and still had the same leak. This left one area to leak and that was the seal on the shift rod.
To really verify the leak before I ordered the seal, I wrapped a piece of 1/8 line around the raised post where the shift rod goes in. I left six inch "tails" on the line and made sure the tails were not touching the gearbox. After the next run, sure enough oil was dripping off the line. Since I figured all that oil wasn't running upwards towards the line, it had to be a bad seal.
The oil I use the same oil as in the engine. I have the 130....

[Ocean Diamond 2]

Hey Sid at SailAway,

Your right, I found this while trolling. see attach.

Your idea of the string is good and maybe I had better take another look at this as it might be leaking but I did wipe my finger around the square plate and gear shift area and didnt notice oil there. I only saw new leaking oil around the filler cap and the extraction hose pipe areas. There was new leaking oil in the rubber diaphram but I believe its from those areas above.

Derek

[Targa96]

Hey, if you still have problems with oil leak I have a suggestion. Take away the fillercap and remove the sealing O-ring, on the cap in the O-ring groove you find two "ridges" going over the groove, smoothen those away for instance with sharp knife, fit a new O-ring seal, put the cap back and your problem may be eliminated. Anyway mine was.

[Ocean Diamond 2]

Originally Posted by Targa96

Hey, if you still have problems with oil leak I have a suggestion. Take away the fillercap and remove the sealing O-ring, on the cap in the O-ring groove you find two "ridges" going over the groove, smoothen those away for instance with sharp knife, fit a new O-ring seal, put the cap back and your problem may be eliminated. Anyway mine was.

Hi Targa96,

Yes I think you have it. The oil seals or "O" rings on the dipstick I think were the problem with my issue. It looks like the said techo at the original service damaged them and this caused to whole episode.
So another 5k down to boat education.
That will teach me to be dumb!!!
Thanks
Derek

[Sid at SailAway]

Thanks for the tip, I'll have a look at the cap....

[AllenRbrts]

I know this is an old post, but I found it when looking for why I had an oil leak, so I thought I would share what I discovered. I have a D55 Volvo, connected to a 130 saildrive. Same set-up as the original post.
I was leaking oil from the shift plate (attached photo). If you are going to remove the shift plate (6 nuts), be sure to mark it first so you know which way to reinstall (it can go two different ways and only one way will work).
There is no gasket between the plate and the body of the saildrive upper case. I think the reason is there isn't suppose to be much oil pressure here. If you are leaking oil from the dip stick, the shift cover or shifter shaft, you might actually have a water leak which is forcing the oil up and out. This was my problem.