Volvo Penta 120 SE Saildrive Cone Replacement

[Magnum]

Hi Norbert, I am sorry that you are having issues, yours is not a problem that I have come across, but to find the 2 clips not located would suggest an issue with the spring washers or excessive wear resulting in excess end float in the shaft. It should not matter which position the gear selector is in, the tool we made gripped the very top of the shaft to prevent it moving down, the bolts in the tool pushed down against the spring washers allowing the clips to be inserted. From what you have said, in certain gear positions, you have too much play in the top of the shaft allowing the lock rings to come out, this should clearly not be possible, which would suggest a potential weakness in the spring washers and they may need replacement.

Is your boat is coming out of the water soon? If so, it may be easier to take the saildrive out, and take the gearbox off of it, this way you can hold the shaft without needing a special tool, you can then check the condition of the sliding sleeve/cones and put new spring washers in.

Sorry I cannot be of any more help.

Kind regards

Doug

[HogwartsExpress]

I want to thank everyone for this post.
I'm not a expert sailor but a decent mechanic and tried to fix a saildrive 120s slipping clutch this myself for a friend of mine while in the middle of nowhere.
Volvo just told us to REMOVE the engine and decouple the sail drive....an estimated 1.700 euro work because they told me the slipping clutch CANNOT be removed since it's held in place on shaft (BS I told them upon looking on the part assembly scheme)

Upon removing the top cover, I used 2 M8 long bolts on the existing 4x M8 threaded holes, 2x 2cm spacers pushing on the washer with 1 16mm wrench bolted by closed end on one of the 2 m8 bolts, another 13mm wrench blocked on the engine and the closed end on the other m8 bolt, using 2 nuts on the m8 bolts i just tightened them down and the spacers managed to get the shim down and removed the half clips out.

I sourced a spare slipping clutch now but i'm figuring out how to perform the reversed operation in a safer/better way.

@norberto can you send me a pic/post it somewhere of your tool?

again thanks everyone!

[davidcepi]

Hi:

I have noticed a small leak of oil that’s coming from the reverse gear cover. What are your recommendations?. Do I need to remove the whole thing making use of the special stool?.

Thanks.

[Magnum]

Hi davidcepi

If the oil leak is coming from the rear cover, you will not need to use a special tool as you don’t need to remove the collets on touch the shaft. On ours the cover also acts as the rear engine/gearbox mount, in order to remove this with the boat in the water we put some timber wedges under the rear of the engine and bolted a piece of angle iron across the top of the saildrive using two of the top cover mounts with a timber support either side.

I will attempt to attach a couple of photos!

[davidcepi]

Originally Posted by Magnum

Hi davidcepi

If the oil leak is coming from the rear cover, you will not need to use a special tool as you don’t need to remove the collets on touch the shaft. On ours the cover also acts as the rear engine/gearbox mount, in order to remove this with the boat in the water we put some timber wedges under the rear of the engine and bolted a piece of angle iron across the top of the saildrive using two of the top cover mounts with a timber support either side.

I will attempt to attach a couple of photos!

Hi Magnum.

Thanks for your reply. I will file this answer for the future. The leak is coming from the cover where the filling oil cap is. I cleaned all thoroughly and found the leak comes between the cover meets the main sail drive box.

I tried removing the cap by removing the 4 bolts and pulling in out but seems is not as easy. It seems it’s attached to something cause I just could lift it up up a couple of mm.

I would like to remove the whole cover and make a gasket for it as oil is leaking onto the rubber diaphragm.

Thanks.

Cover is number 3 in the diagram.

[chuckheb]

This post has been very helpful and I want to add to it. Please read the entire prior posts and diagrams/videos first, and understand them before moving on to my suggestions. My split rings and washers came out fairly easily under compression and with a bit of gentle tapping with a hammer and screwdriver on the top washer. Use needle nose pliers or tweezers to grab the split rings. When removing the spring washers, keep them in order and put them in a secure place so you don’t have to figure them out later.

Please see my pictures for what I found was an easier tool to compress the spring washers. I easily sourced a piece of steel square tube and 8mm threaded rod in a remote locale to make the tool. Simply compress the spring washers with the tool by tightening the nuts on the threaded rod. KEY NOTE- for re-installing the split washers, after compressing the tool a bit, shift into gear (not sure if it was reverse or forward…try till the shaft lifts a bit). Then you can easily insert a flat screw driver and easily, gently pry the shaft up, a bit more, to create enough space to reinsert the split retaining washers. They should go in very easily when the shaft is lifted.

MOST KEY NOTE- when reinstalling “dog” (part #34 in the diagram) that the shifter moves up and down…. it HAS to be installed the right way. The shaft rotates clockwise looking down, and if you install the dog backwards it will lock onto the cone and seize the engine, and damage the cone. Trust me, I know. The right way to install it is logical but subtle. There was a little number “1” one the dog and it goes down!! The slightly longer part of the dog should be forward, to properly engage the cone without binding (double check my logic please and check the orientation of the dog visually). We seized the engine and slightly damaged the cone from this binding at first, but then we reinstalled it correctly and now the shifting is smooth and sure. NOTE. the new cone will have a black grip material bonded on it. (See pictures). This is what wears off and when gone, the cone will slip.

Note. Each cone cost me $1000USD in Indonesia from the dealer. I suspect Volvo simply coats the bronze cone with an strong epoxy grip such as “metal weld”. In a pinch maybe you could just re-coat your cone with a thin coat of roughened epoxy and sand it round, to emulate the coating Volvo adds, but you’ll be in experimental territory there.

Happy repairs and cheers to the prior posters who helped me with this.

[Tikitour]

Hi,
Unfortunately I am having the same problem. I am currently looking for a replacement sliding sleeve cone for my sail drive 120se. Where were you able to find them?

[chuckheb]

I got mine from the Volvo dealer in Jakarta. They were in stock. $1000USD each.

[Bigggwilly]

How much force did you have to apply downward on the spring washer to get the half-circle clips out? Ranging from 0 being "I could have done it by hand" and 10 being "if I apply any more force something is going to break and I'll end up blind".

I'm trying a similar jig as shown above (with the steel bar) and I'm somewhere at a 9 right now and wondering if I should keep going or there is something i'm overlooking. The clips are loose enough to move around, but I can't get them out.

[chuckheb]

It’s about a 6-7 on that scale. No way you could do it by hand but also, once the tool bottoms out don’t push harder.

I found that tapping the shaft with a hammer while pulling on the loose clips with a needle nose pliers worked. Also, shift the transmission to adjust the shaft in your favor.

[SVCmhbedouin]

I too have this issue and would like to replace my sliding sleeves. Could you please repost how you attach and hold the shaft up ? Do i just put in reverse which creates some upward movement in the shaft and hence enough space to allow me to depress. Also, how far do they depress. Any pics would be very helpful. Regards SV BEDOUIN

[Bigggwilly]

Hi,

Just for reference, i performed this operation on my apartment floor, so it’s a different experience than doing it in a boat. Also, the saildrive was split so I really had full access.

No matter how much downward pressure I applied, I absolutely could not get the split rings out. They were loose, but I just couldn’t pop them out. And I applied a lot of pressure. I ended up having to push up on the output shaft from below, but this was easy because the saildrive was split.

So after much reflecting, I have concluded (not tested) that the best way to be the shaft up a bit would be to stick a small zip-tie tail down the hole in the middle of the shaft, and then screw a wood screw into that hole as well. My hope is that the screw would deform the zip tie and grip tightly. From here you would find a way to pull up on the screw while pushing down on the top plate to fully release the split rings.

I hope this helps!

[SVCmhbedouin]

We managed to get this done in Situ. The trick was putting it into gear (Fwd or Reverse depending on which rotation prop you have). This holds it up. Then take a magnet on an extender and you can just lift them out.

Prior note about bottoming out was correct. You can feel it.
Also very important to pull the washers and spacers out in a specific order AND Orientation (which is the face up side). Then put them back in reverse order and with same face.

Thanks to all those before us who made this possible. Saved us a haul out.

[benestrophe]

Wondering if Norberto ever found a solution..?? even if he took the boat out would love to know..

I've got the same thing, either I don't have enough spacers and the drive can shift to a position where the rings come out, OR I add add enough spacers and can't manage to get the split rings in.

Mechanic thinks something might be weird down below, but not sure how that would be possible.

I'm away now and my tinkering is all paying mechanic remotely!

Got so much fixed and now this last bit closing things up really has me stumped.

Any ideas?