DPH Drive Stuck In Gear: Scary

[beejay190]

I had a scary experience last Tuesday afternoon when I was holding station approx. 100 yards from Poole Quay awaiting the 16.30 bridge lifts, inbound to Cobbs Quay.

Suddenly, without any prompting from me, the drive attempted to engage reverse gear. There was a lot of clunking as it tried to go into gear and I immediately pushed the hammer forward to stop the boat reversing. This happened a few times and I thought I might have got something caught round the props. I trimmed the drive up/down but this did not improve matters.

Poole Old Town Bridge lifted and I gingerly proceeded through and onwards under the Twin Sails Bridge ( just squeezing under at 2.8m clearance ).

Proceeded past the RNLI college and I then noticed that the hammer was not responding. Pushed as far forwards/backwards as it would go-no response. The boat was just moving forward at minimum speed in gear. Boat stuck in forward gear; only way of stopping was to switch the engine off.

I called up Cobbs and requested that someone be available on the Dry Stack pontoon to assist as I came into berth. Luckily the wind was light , there were no boats ahead of me and there was plenty of room on the pontoon. I switched the engine off approx. 30 yards from the pontoon and , assisted by the bow thruster, managed to glide to the pontoon where the Marina manager was waiting.

Boat is now out of the water awaiting inspection next Monday. It is stuck in forward gear and will start - which it should not do.

Hopefully not an expensive fix. Any thoughts on what has gone wrong, please.

 

[[2068]]

Maybe the gear shift actuator has become possessed by Beelzebub.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Gear selector assembly (at top of leg) jammed? How old is the leg?

 

[beejay190]

Maybe the gear shift actuator has become possessed by Beelzebub.

Hope so. Don't think they are too expensive.

I was returning from a three day stay in Island Harbour accompanied by Geoff S in his LARSON. I am pretty sure I saw FlowerPower when we were heading up the Medina on Sunday lunchtime -having just threaded our way though the Fastnet mayhem

 

[beejay190]

Gear selector assembly (at top of leg) jammed? How old is the leg?

Boat is a 2008 ( 2009 model ) Nimbus Nova 27s.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Boat is a 2008 ( 2009 model ) Nimbus Nova 27s.

Hmm. Maybe not the selector then (known fault with early DPH legs). Bad connection at the throttle head? Possible a failing throttle potentiometer. Worth taking the throttle apart, cleaning the contacts and then recalibrating. I had a prob where I had one leg self-selecting gear, and subsequently forgetting its calibration (wrong throttle position for neutral, idle ahead etc); cleaning contacts thoroughly and recalibrating solved the problem completely.

 

[Andrew38]

Hi Jimmy,

This sounds very similar to events on my boat with D6s/DPH.

That was an actuator cable failure. On the Beneteau the actuator cable is a Beneteau item but the connector is Volvo. On mine (under warranty) the local Spanish Volvo dealer replaced both sides actuator cables and connectors, as if one goes the other is at risk. Don't know about your boat but the joystick control on mine puts a lot of stress on a known weakpoint on the drives.

 

[[2068]]

I am pretty sure I saw FlowerPower when we were heading up the Medina on Sunday lunchtime -having just threaded our way though the Fastnet mayhem

Yup, that was us, heading up to the Folly.
I would have taken some pictures of the mayhem, but I was too busy trying to avoid everything

 

[volvopaul]

With no edc faults as the engine may have stopped it could just be as simple as a broken cable or the link rod has fallen off, overload of the actuator would put the control into limp mode 1000 ish rpm etc.

 

[Gentlemanracer]

My "DPH stuck in reverse" was due to a failed split pin. Engine switch-off was the only measure available as we rotated about the marina fairway, fortunately without incident. Mr Volvo's "under warranty service support" comments were the stuff that stress is made from, but he's gone elsewhere since. And they were Volvo parts, sir, even though not stainless. Just don't go there, brings it all back. Hope you get fixed soon.

 

[kanajobe48]

We had similar experience going into a tight and full Guernsey harbour, switched off the non working engine and bumped a bit although very embarrassing!
After being stuck for Saturday and Sunday' got a lift out on the Monday and found problem to be a brass split pin that had rusted through in the leg causing the gear to be stuck " in gear, " 20p fix, £250 lift out! Could have been worse

 

[Gentlemanracer]

Interesting! Contrary to Volvo's assertion, I'll bet we're not the only sufferers from Volvo specified non stainless split pins in our drives. Our St Vaast lift out was ¢150 with stainless split pin supplies in town we replaced pins & greased them up in both drives. With the experience that Volvo must have, anyone offer why not OE stainless??

 

[Andrew38]

My "DPH stuck in reverse" was due to a failed split pin. Engine switch-off was the only measure available as we rotated about the marina fairway, fortunately without incident. Mr Volvo's "under warranty service support" comments were the stuff that stress is made from, but he's gone elsewhere since. And they were Volvo parts, sir, even though not stainless. Just don't go there, brings it all back. Hope you get fixed soon.

Always competing Tony! See you in SCM soon

 

[aquatom]

Interesting! Contrary to Volvo's assertion, I'll bet we're not the only sufferers from Volvo specified non stainless split pins in our drives. Our St Vaast lift out was ¢150 with stainless split pin supplies in town we replaced pins & greased them up in both drives. With the experience that Volvo must have, anyone offer why not OE stainless??

We service at least 50 Volvo out drives every year and have done for many many years. We've never had a problem with the brass split pins. I would think the only reason they would fail is if they were reused instead of replaced when servicing.

 

[Gentlemanracer]

We service at least 50 Volvo out drives every year and have done for many many years. We've never had a problem with the brass split pins. I would think the only reason they would fail is if they were reused instead of replaced when servicing.

Yup, quite agree. Bound to fail. So to protect the manufacturer's "good" name against the consequences of delinquent workmanship, just put a customer service role between work instructed and work actually done. The blinding benefit of an independent is that customer service is also the engineer: overhead down, quality up: an apparent no brainer.

 

[GrahamHR]

I serviced the DPS drives I had for 14 years. The VP split pins for those American drives were always stainless steel, I've yet to service my current DPH drive. I hope the split pins are not brass, they will surely fail in saltwater due to dezincification.

 

[volvopaul]

I serviced the DPS drives I had for 14 years. The VP split pins for those American drives were always stainless steel, I've yet to service my current DPH drive. I hope the split pins are not brass, they will surely fail in saltwater due to dezincification.

They more than likely will be brass.

 

[kevingreystones]

Great boat , we have an older Nimbus 26 Nova moored in Plymouth, are you still happy with yours ( despite this irritating problem )

 

[beejay190]

Great boat , we have an older Nimbus 26 Nova moored in Plymouth, are you still happy with yours ( despite this irritating problem )

Thank you. Yep, i am very happy with my Nimbus Nova 27s. I am no connoisuer but it is much better made than my three previous boats. The wide deep starboard sidedeck gives safe and easy access to the bow foredeck and windlass foot controls. I am not too steady on my pins and was uncomfortable with previous boats where access was either by climbing through a screen or balancing on narrow side decks.
I believe it is one of only two 27s in the UK and i recently advertised it for sale on a well known website as i am planning to reorganise my toy collection
The engineer is coming tomorrow to hopefully fix the Drive problem.