Saildrive Losing Oil

[Cruisin Cat]

Hello everyone,

I am losing oil frm one of my saildrives...volvo130S-B saildrive behind D1-30F engines. Is there any way to easily tell if the oil is leaking out of the propeller shaft seals or out of the input shaft seal behind the engine?

Appreciate any comments on how to do this or comments from anyone who has had a similar problem?

[Sunspot Baby]

If there is no oil under the mating surfaces of transmission and engine then it is probably going out the seal around the propeller shaft. This is the most common problem.

The sail drive has two seals facing different directions on the shaft, one keeps oil in, the other to keep water out.

George

[Cruisin Cat]

George,

Thanks for your comments.

Unfortunately there is no easy way to inspect the area between engine and saildrive....it seems to be pretty much sealed, not even a drain hole in the bottom of the bell housing around the ring gear. I thought about removing the starter moter and look in through the hole but the starter motor is pretty much inaccessable....hope I never have to change it out! Seems the only way to inspect would be to disconnect the moter and slide it forward.

You said that the lower seals is the more common problem and I'm hoping that is the problem I have. I actually had a problem with water leaking into this same sail drive about 2 months ago and had the seals replaced. It seemed fine for about a month but then started losing oil.

I'm wondering if the guy who replaced the seals may have put them in the wrong way round. My saildrives have 2 identical seals that face in opposit directions. However I don't know how they should be oriented. Should the sides of the seals with the spring and the lip both face inwards towards each other or both face outwards, one towards the sea and the other towards the oil? I assume the latter but then the water seal will have its metal spring exposed to sea water...is the correct?

Appreciate comments from anyone with experience on saildrive seals?

Barrie