Hi:
I have 2
Volvo D1-30s on my 44' cat, each with a 130
Volvo Saildrive. In mid-March 2010, with about 600 hours on the engines, the port
saildrive started failing intermittently in forward
gear only ... I'd move to engage the
gear, and it would slowly engage in idle, but as I revved up, no power (most of the time). Sometimes it would engage, but often not. The drive seems to engage reliably in reverse, and, with multiple tries, I can usually get it to engage in forward. Once in forward, it stays in forward. It's getting it into forward reliably and timely that's the issue. If it's in gear, taking it out (to idle, for example) puts everything back to square one, and I'm rolling the proverbial dice when I look to re-engage in forward.
Obviously troubling in tight
anchorages, like the one in
Galapagos where it first happened. Luckily, there were some local pangas who helped push me clear of other boats, as I lacked the ability to turn the
boat.
In the
Marquesas, I encountered another cat that had the same issue, and he said it was the thrust washers or bearings, and that Volvo was aware of the issue and was working on it.
I am now in
Tahiti, having had a few heart-stopping moments in the Tuomotus, and I have discovered other tales of 130-woe on the web, and wonder if anyone has any ideas. We're working through both my US dealer and the authorized
Tahiti dealer to resolve this, but I get conflicting
advice re: a prop issue vs. a
gearbox issue, and whether this can be fixed in or out of the
water.
Advice and insights welcome.