DPE minor vibration

simonfraser

simonfraser

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increases with the unit away from neutral trim / steering angle
nothing ‘major’ not increased over the 250 hours I have used it
should I have the U joint replaced next time the bellows are replaced ?
can the bellows be removed for U joint access as they are quite recent ?
can the U joint be replaced with the leg still on ?

the DPE has not been apart for at least 7 years, 450 hours now
 
tnx, yes web link works, props new no chips

the seals are obviously at least 7 years old, i would not be surprised if they are 20 as there are no bills to support replacement
the boat is on a trailer, no water in the oil, the oil report 3 years ago was normal & no filings in the bottom plug

the clutch engagement is slightly clunky in reverse, which is as it should be ?
but butter smooth forwards ....

i don't fancy a long term repairs with several on / off repairs
so a fixed cutch and a new U joint, then, various seals replaced plus whatever gremlins there might be in an old DPE

do i 'just' let the local service dealer loose on it, or get a recon unit in ?

if only VP was in the brightlingsea area ......
 
Its either the U joint or the intermediate shaft bearings going by your symptons. Yes the UJ can be replaced without taking the leg off, you just remove the top section. The UJ is easy to change but requires a special procedure to measure the bearing preload for the input gear on the end of the UJ on reassembly. I would always fit new bellows as they are not expensive compared to the damage if they leak. If the seals are that old then I would replace both sets of propshaft seals and the gearshift quadrant seal. If the gear shift is very smooth then the clutch could be worn or the cone glazed.
 
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If the seals have not been changed for 7 years or more I would rush them over to the mechanic and get that done no matter how few hours they have been used.
 
A_8 said:
If the seals have not been changed for 7 years or more I would rush them over to the mechanic and get that done no matter how few hours they have been used.
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Why? If there is no water in the oil and no oil leaking from the drive etc, why replace them? Is there a recommendation from Volvo when to replace seals when there are no identifiable issues with existing seals?
 
Every 2 years from Volvo and the reason is simple, once you got water in there it's too late. You won't be able to identify any issues with the existing seals until you drain the oil which if you do it once a year might mean the water has been in there for up to 12 mths.
 
A_8 said:
Every 2 years from Volvo and the reason is simple, once you got water in there it's too late. You won't be able to identify any issues with the existing seals until you drain the oil which if you do it once a year might mean the water has been in there for up to 12 mths.
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depends where the boat is imo
mine is on a trailer, takes seconds to check the oil

so i am planning on getting all (!) the jobs done on the DPE in one go
 
A_8 said:
Every 2 years from Volvo and the reason is simple, once you got water in there it's too late. You won't be able to identify any issues with the existing seals until you drain the oil which if you do it once a year might mean the water has been in there for up to 12 mths.
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Yes every 2 years for the bellows, but what is wrong with checking the oil every year to identify any water ingress, after all most boats are only lifted annually. The Volvo oil will give some protection to minor water contamination. The service manual doesn't state when to change drive seals only bellows, hence my question. In my experience not had issue in the last 20years doing the annual drive check/service and replacing seals when required.
 
Scubadoo said:
Yes every 2 years for the bellows, but what is wrong with checking the oil every year to identify any water ingress, after all most boats are only lifted annually. The Volvo oil will give some protection to minor water contamination. The service manual doesn't state when to change drive seals only bellows, hence my question. In my experience not had issue in the last 20years doing the annual drive check/service and replacing seals when required.
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If you put some "torque time" on the drives the oil will not protect them with water in them. I'd say more than a few weeks will also start corrosion which in turn will give you issues with bearings and gears 50-150 hours later which depending on the time passed you won't connect to the earlier water ingress and think its a separate issue.
Great if you have managed so far but if the drives are busy at higher speeds/torque it's very costly to run them with water hence the logic to replace the seals before this happens. If you mostly potter around at displacement speeds you won't notice even though the next owner might be in for a surprise depending how the boat is then used.
 
Only last week a guy brought in two DPE drives for me to service, he had bought a used 33 footer for £100k and done just two trips in it . When I drained the oil at least 1 ltr of clear seawater ran out before any oil came out. Now over 25 yrs of servicing VP drives easily 40% have water in the oil, but it normally looks like Baileys as VP oil holds water in suspension. This drive didn’t have VP oil so it separated. I opened the drive top and bottom and as expected all the gears had chips where the case hardening had failed due to running without lubrication. Sadly the other drive was just the same, I didn’t bother pricing a total rebuild as the parts plus labour are too expensive as everything has to be shimmed, measured and shimmed again, its very labour intensive. So its around £15k for two new drives at Norwegian prices. There were deep wear grooves from the seals on the propshafts and one seal had melted from running with no oil behind it. Thats why I always check the oil on any drive when the boat is out of the water, if you catch it early its just a set of seals, if it goes on too long this happens.
 
Disassemble said:
From personal experience, barge poles spring to mind. Don’t be fooled by the warranty, especially if your boat needs to craned out of the water.
D.B marine at Cookham rectified the work that was never done to both my drives and turned out being cheaper including cranage. “Hindsight “ a wonderful thing!
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What was the issue with the work 'done' by IVSS?

My intuition is that refurbishing drives isn't easy and with the volume of drives that IVSS supply you're bound to get the odd issue and only IVSS issue that I've seen here in 20 years was due to problems when they relocated workshops.

But I'd have no hesitation in getting a local specialist to fix my drives as long as he was sufficiently skilled and honest to set the up / shim them properly.
 
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