Beware - Yanmar SD-50 Saildrive

[cruiz9]

I have mentioned this issue before in previous posts but since the subject has come up again and it infuriates me so much i will comment again.
I have 2 sd50t saildrives in my cat with 75hp engines and 18" gori 3 blade props as specified by Yanmar.
At 800 hrs both drives were on the verge of catastrofic failure when i called in Yanmar to look at them,at huge expense i was told to lift the boat so The yanmar mechanic could pull them out of the boat and strip them to find the problem.
After 7 days in the workshop the mechanic called me in to show me 2 stripped down saildrives,when asked what was the problem and when it could be fixed he shook his head and said he would not waste his time and my money fixing them as there was so many things wrong with them it wasnt worth fixing and he could not explain to me what had caused the problems,.
So the question of warranty was brought up again ,he agreed that it was a warrantable issue but it was up to Yanmars agent in Oz, Power Equipment to make that call, so far the mechanics bill is up to $3500 plus $2000 for hardstand and lifting,im starting to panic,.
After a week of sweating it out Yanmar come back with an answer on the warranty claim, SORRY NOTon this occaision, but we will supply you with 2 new units at a discounted price ,another $12000 with fitting costs. Now the answer from yanmar did not surprise me ,knowing there attitude from previous dealings with them.
So in anticipation of that, during the week i got in touch with my insurance company at the time Nautilus in australia and had a talk to them about the situation and they got a assessor around to the mechanics workshop to get a report from him,his conclusion was that it should be a warrantable item ,but if Yanmar would not come to the party Nautilus would cover it under there breakdown clause in there policy.
The final bill came to close to $20,000. If it had not been for the insurance company it would have put a sizable hole in our cruising budget.
I still dont trust the new ones and probably never will ,put me of saildrives for ever.
We had oil leaks after just 300 hrs on the new units ,but this time we were dealing with Yanmar Singapore,what a difference in attitude, they could not do enough for us,they covered all costs in fixing the leaks ,lifting ,hardstand,plane flights and acommadation for mechanics to come up from Singapore to Langkawi, and even follow up phone calls after to make sure everything was ok. Australia could well take some lessons from Asia on how to treat your customers.
By the way the Nautilus assessor told me they were going to take Yanmar australia to court to try and recover there payout to me.

Huge praise to Nautilus Insurance.
Dead ducks to Yanmar Australia and Power equipment and sd50 saildrives{ JUNK !!!}

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by thorcat

I have mentioned this issue before in previous posts but since the subject has come up again and it infuriates me so much i will comment again.
I have 2 sd50t saildrives in my cat with 75hp engines and 18" gori 3 blade props as specified by Yanmar.
At 800 hrs both drives were on the verge of catastrofic failure when i called in Yanmar to look at them,at huge expense i was told to lift the boat so The yanmar mechanic could pull them out of the boat and strip them to find the problem.
After 7 days in the workshop the mechanic called me in to show me 2 stripped down saildrives,when asked what was the problem and when it could be fixed he shook his head and said he would not waste his time and my money fixing them as there was so many things wrong with them it wasnt worth fixing and he could not explain to me what had caused the problems,.
So the question of warranty was brought up again ,he agreed that it was a warrantable issue but it was up to Yanmars agent in Oz, Power Equipment to make that call, so far the mechanics bill is up to $3500 plus $2000 for hardstand and lifting,im starting to panic,.
After a week of sweating it out Yanmar come back with an answer on the warranty claim, SORRY NOTon this occaision, but we will supply you with 2 new units at a discounted price ,another $12000 with fitting costs. Now the answer from yanmar did not surprise me ,knowing there attitude from previous dealings with them.
So in anticipation of that, during the week i got in touch with my insurance company at the time Nautilus in australia and had a talk to them about the situation and they got a assessor around to the mechanics workshop to get a report from him,his conclusion was that it should be a warrantable item ,but if Yanmar would not come to the party Nautilus would cover it under there breakdown clause in there policy.
The final bill came to close to $20,000. If it had not been for the insurance company it would have put a sizable hole in our cruising budget.
I still dont trust the new ones and probably never will ,put me of saildrives for ever.
We had oil leaks after just 300 hrs on the new units ,but this time we were dealing with Yanmar Singapore,what a difference in attitude, they could not do enough for us,they covered all costs in fixing the leaks ,lifting ,hardstand,plane flights and acommadation for mechanics to come up from Singapore to Langkawi, and even follow up phone calls after to make sure everything was ok. Australia could well take some lessons from Asia on how to treat your customers.
By the way the Nautilus assessor told me they were going to take Yanmar australia to court to try and recover there payout to me.

Huge praise to Nautilus Insurance.
Dead ducks to Yanmar Australia and Power equipment and sd50 saildrives{ JUNK !!!}

You state they were on the verge of catastrophic failure, what were the symptoms? When my second shaft seal went water entered the saildrive oil. I had to use the engine at high RPM for about 20 minutes. The water flashed to steam and blew out ever seal in the unit and sprayed the engine room with hot oil. Of course without any oil in the unit sea water was no free to enter. It took me about 5 days to get an appointment for a haulout that could handle my cat. Of course after 5 days bathing in seawater every bearing in the thing had been destroyed. My options were $3500 plus three weeks on the hard for a rebuild or buy a new unit for $4000. The catch was that Yanmar does not ship saildrives to the US unless attached to an engine. The new ones would have to be shipped from Japan and delivery time was around 90 days but even that was not guaranteed. So three weeks on the hard or three months on the hard. I took the rebuild. It seems to me that even after converting my US$ price to Aus$ they were not giving you much of a price break on replacement units. Oddly enough some of the few parts that were able to be reused in my rebuild were the cone clutches. By the way I have always used Quicksilver high performance gear lube.

[SVFaith]

Good morning Sir, I'm looking for a SD50 with 2.32:1 ratio. If you still have....Thank you!

[Starblossom]

I do, but it won't be available until June 2014

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, SVFaith.

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

Absolutely it is unacceptable, but unless you're lawyer that can do his own court work are you going to pay the costs of suing them? Unfortunately there are probably not enough yanmar owners out there to make it worth while for a lawyer to take this on as a class action suit. You know those type of suits where the lawyers get a 100 million and the victims get a dollar. Now if you could show that someone had been injured or died because of a bad cone clutch design you could probably get something going. It seems to me that Yanmar could care less that we are having problems with their saildrives. I guess you have yet to find out thet the steel they use in their shafts is so soft that the oil seals cut grooves in them and you have to have them replaced along with your leaking oil seals. The last time this happened to me the shop turned down the shaft and put a chrome steel sleeve over the shaft. They said it was the only way they had found to solve the problem. The fact is that Yanmar SD40/SD50 sail drives are absolute junk. I know, I own two.

I hate to quote myself, but the prop shaft seals on the drive with the chromed sleeve just gave up the ghost. I've got water in my oil and I'm looking for a haul out. Of course it's Sunday and there isn't a boat yard in south florida with anyone answering the phone. They lasted exactly 2 years and one month. I got the boat back on Christmas eve 2 years ago. I'll let you know how the chrome sleeve held up when I get it apart.

[Emerald Sea]

Capt Bill,
I hear you frustration! And countless other 40/50 owners.
I wonder if Yanmar have learned their lessons with the newer SD60s?
Steve

[wcrosby]

I too have recently experienced the SD50 failure in mY Jeanneau 409. I had just over 500 hours when a charter customer reported problems. then my charter manager saw the same thing. I did the research and found this posting. We got a Yanmar tech to come out after a week, and they demanded that my boat be hauled. They are also saying it will not be covered under warranty in a less than 2-year old boat. I'm not happy. I'm going to look for a lawyer. Anyone interested in joining ME? IF you email me, I will keep a database of all the respondents.

[wcrosby]

I too just had my SD50 fail at just over 500 hours. Yanmar required me to haul my boat and remove the saildrive, even though I protested. I'm extremely upset and want to go after them. Anyone else that is interested in legal action, please feel free to notify me, and I will track all respondents.

[BadKitty]

Wow, what did I start here with this thread? But glad I did.
I cannot say enough bad things about Yanmar and how they handle their warranty claims on the obviously poorly engineered SD-50 sail drive.
I am most interested in following any class action legal proceeding that may ensue and would certainly participate in such action. The treatment I got from Yanmar in Georgia warrants a response as Im sure plenty others have been treated the same.