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Old 02-12-2005, 20:02   #1
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Unhappy Sail Drive Maintenance

I have two Volvo Penta 120 S-D saildrives on my Privilege 37 cat that need some work during haulout this month. This is my first experience with sail drives and i need to get smart before i start taking things apart. Hope some folks that have messed with them can share their experience.

My first challenge is to replace the large rubber grommet that separates the bilge from the deep blue sea. The shop manual isn't clear about the degree of difficulty of this job. Does the transmission case need to be removed from the back of the engine? OR Can the back end of the transmission be lifted up so the motor mount can be lifted from the metal ring that holds down the outside circumference of the rubber grommet? Also, how difficult is it to separate the drive leg from the transmission (it looks like removing a few bolts should allow the leg to drop)? Are these bolts likely to be seized up from stainless bolts through aluminum housing?

The next challenge will be to replace the prop shaft seals at the bottom of the drive leg. After removing the outer aft casing that holds the zinc, will the drive shaft come right out or will i need a puller?

The last question is about anti fouling paint. So far i've only found two products suitable for aluminum drive leg, Interlux TriLux Prop and Drive Paint and Petit Alumiguard spray paint. Trilux has copper thiocynate as biocide and Alumiguard is tin based. Anyone have experince with these products or any other choices? Also, are these or other products any good on bronze props or would i be wasting my time?

Thanks for any advice in advance. I hate to waste expensive yard time because of my own ignorance (learned that the hard way)
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Old 04-12-2005, 20:54   #2
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Greg - I have just spent the weekend with my 2 Volvo 120C-S (?) Saildrives, though not to the extent you are anticipating.
I would REALLY like to know how you proceed and what issues you face - more detail the better.
I stripped my drives down to bare aluminum and re-finished using Interlux. There were the only company that seemed to take aluminum from A-Z, and the SoCal rep was very helpful.
The main reason for haul was to replace the "unreplaceable" zincs.
Volvo has lost it when it comes to smart engineering.
Anyway, I anticipate haveing to replace the rubber gasket next year or so and the only thing I can find it the recommendation to have this done professionally.
Please keep me in the loop and let me know if I can answer any quesitons for you . Email at whoulihan@cox.net anytime.

Best Regards,

Bill
San Diego
Athena 38
Limerick
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Old 05-12-2005, 18:14   #3
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first things first

Do what the shops do when encountering something new. GET THE SERVICE MANUAL. If you check my web site I think I have some older ones, older meaning on the shelf for a long time, you could have for a saw-buck.

Or email me 1904taphian@sbcglobal.net
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Old 06-12-2005, 07:09   #4
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Sail Drive ruminations:

I have the Yanmar engines and saildrive. But after watching the FP next to me in the yard for about a week I have come to the conclussion that there are very few differences in approach between Yanmars and the Volvo's. Some of these recommendations are based on direct experience with the yanmars and some on observing a technician perform the operations on Volvos.

If you are speaking of the seals at the base of the saildrive mounting plate, you'll have to seperate the engine and transmission. The seperation may not be that bad. You'll have to remove the engine mounting bolts and pull the engine forward. The saildrive can then be removed from the boat. You'll need to do so to get at the seals. The removal of the sail drive at that point is not bad at all. Replacing the seals is not all that bad at that point.

The engine and transmission may or may not sperate easily. I didn't encounter much difficulty with removing the bolts that attach the transmission to engine. But, on one of my engines the the saildrive shaft was "rusted" to the engine flywheel. I sprayed lots of Kroil and PB blaster in the crack I was able to get between the two. I am not sure that broke them loose. I finally used a pair of small pry bars to rock the transmission and engine loose. I asked my diesel service center about this first, they suggested this process. It worked just fine. If necessary to use this approach, try not to marr the matting surfaces. There is no fluid or anything between the two, but... Oh, this shaft is what makes it necessary to move the engine forward. I did not have to remove any of the fittings from the engine to do this.


There is another "seal" at the bottom of the boat. This is more a barnacle sheild than a seal. This can be replaced without any engine transmission disassembly.

The shaft seals are replaced by removing the prop and zinc, then putting the prop hub back on the shaft, taking a 2 x 4 and putting it against the prop hub and tapping the shaft out. The gentleman next to us just had this done in the yard and I spent many fascinated minutes watching the technician perform this operation. Not bad to do, just don't forget to remove the shaft bolts after you remove the zincs!

I don't know if the shaft seal are that easy to replace, there was a great deal of controversy over that issue. It took the technician a week to resolve that issue. I don't know the details.
something about having to press the seals back in place.

I used Trilux on my props. The recommendation I received was that I use Zinc Chromate then a barrier coat, then Trilux. Well, I did this, but I REALLY expect it all to be a waste. I expect the coating to abraid and I'll just end up with growth. I think You're probably just better going down and scrubbing the props down every three week or so. When I get down to Florida, I'll dive the props and see what they look like.

Oh, and I am finally back in the water!!


Only 1 month out. Time to put the boat back together and get headed back south.

Keith
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Old 06-12-2005, 09:14   #5
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I have one left

I have two of those manuals for the sd 120. One is spoken for I believe. If your interested contact me at 1904taphian@sbcglobal.net.
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Old 09-12-2005, 18:25   #6
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Cool

Thanks for the inputs Keith & Wind Thief. For Bill, I have some new info on the rubber grommet replacement below. For Wind Thief, I already have the shop manuals, but thanks for the offer.

Keith, I really appreciate the detailed explanation of the jobs. I went to the local Volvo Penta dealer today and talked to the owner/mechanic about the sail drive jobs. After talking to him, I decided to delay the rubber grommet replacement until next haulout. I cleaned each grommet and the rubber on both looks very healthy so I suspect it was changed not too long ago. The dealer said it would look dried and cracked if it was as old as the boat (9 yrs). He did say that the job isn't too difficult as long as the bolts holding the drive leg aren't seized up. He also said that the transmission doesn't need to be separated from the engine, but the transmission motor mount needs to be removed and the aft end of the transmission needs to be supported by something. My son invented something he calls a "basketball" jack which would probably work. He blows up a basketball under the transmission and adjusts the height by the amount of air in the ball. I also discussed replacing the propeller shaft seals in the drive leg. He said the only tricky part is pulling the shaft. He suggests a slide hammer with a bolt that fits into the end of the shaft. I'll see if I can jury rig a puller or use your method with the propeller hub and a 2x4.

Keith, we already have too many jobs lined up for the haulout so I'm relieved that I don't have to tackle the grommets this haul. We are also getting tired after many months of boat projects and don't want to tackle another tricky one at the last minute. (Sound familiar?). Congratulations on getting back in the water. Sounds like you are ready to change lattitude. We are going through our list of "nice to have" projects to see what ones we can complete in the next 3 weeks and which ones won't get done for awhile.

Regarding the antifouling paint for sail drive and props, I got a deal on spray cans of Petit "Aluma Spray" paint. Don't know if it will be any better than Tri Lux, but we can compare notes later on. For the props, I'm going to try Petit "Zinc Coat Barnacle Barrier (1792)". I saw a post somewhere that Max Prop is recommending the stuff, but it will probably come off like everything else.
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