Leopard 38: Leopard 38 / 39: Sail Drive

[schiehser]

Boat is currently on the hard in San Diego with Sail Drive issues. Water found in the lower sail drive unit and supposedly entering through the rubber diaphragm seal ring into the engine room as well. Boatyard claims the whole engine needs to be removed, engine room floor resurfaced/glassed due to possible warping. The quote they gave me for just the starboard side is $3950. They are recommending that both sides get done.

My questions:
1) Is it possible to remove the upper sail drive unit and/or replace the seal without removing the entire engine?
2) Has anyone out there experienced leaking of their rubber diaphragm seal or any knowledge of this issue that might be helpful?

Thanks,
Mike

Owner of a 2010 Robertson and Caine Leopard 384

[ShaktisBoy]

You have to decouple the sail drive to remove the upper unit. It usually involves sliding the main engine back at the very least so that sounds about right. In our 07 L40 there is enough room to do this I'm a bit confused why you want to remove the sail drive when you could just replace the lower seal unless there is a trickle of water seeping into the engine room. If it is leaking or seeping I think you should get it done. Is it possible to do the prep work yourself to reduce the cost some?

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by schiehser

Boat is currently on the hard in San Diego with Sail Drive issues. Water found in the lower sail drive unit and supposedly entering through the rubber diaphragm seal ring into the engine room as well. Boatyard claims the whole engine needs to be removed, engine room floor resurfaced/glassed due to possible warping. The quote they gave me for just the starboard side is $3950. They are recommending that both sides get done.

My questions:
1) Is it possible to remove the upper sail drive unit and/or replace the seal without removing the entire engine?
2) Has anyone out there experienced leaking of their rubber diaphragm seal or any knowledge of this issue that might be helpful?

Thanks,
Mike

Owner of a 2010 Robertson and Caine Leopard 384

1. Yes and No.. The engine must be decoupled from the saildrive to replace that seal. In our boat, we simple push the engine forward after removing the 4 mounting bolts (plus bolts holding motor to saildrive). Took me 1 hour to decouple the engine.

2. That rubber seal has a quoted life of 8 years from BOTH Yanmar and Volvo. They rarely leak, but its not unheard of. Our boat is 12 years old and we chose to replace both those seals when the boat was out of the water.

Now as to reglassing, resurfacing the engine room floor.. REALLY.. I'm finding that very hard to believe.. In our boat the entire engine room is solid glass. There is nothing to warp.

Next.. I highly highly doubt the water is entering your saildrive through that big rubber seal. Although that seal is technically under the water (on the bottom side), the sealing surface is huge. I have never ever heard of a saildrive getting water ingress from that location. It much much more likely that the water is leaking in from the lip seals on the output shaft! I would do the lip seals while you are at it! Just sayin!