Is a saildrive an abomination?

Halo said:
Next time I go to the States I will bring a set back with me!!!
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My sister brought me everything I needed to change my 1GM10 cylinder head as a present. It cost her a little over half what it would have cost me here. As I recall, the worst disparity I found was exhaust valves: £24 vs $10.
 
nigelmercier said:
I've done the job twice now. It takes a couple of hours to change, but the same getting the leg out of the hole and back in again.
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Wow Nigel that was quick work. It took me a couple of days - but I did change the engine mountings at the same time. I wrote a summary of my experiences on the job and will send a copy if people p.m. me with their email address
Martin
 
I have a Citroën DS. The main hydraulic accumulator is a service item. To get at it, you have to remove the headlamp steering mechanism, the front wings, the radiator air ducting, the radiator, the alternator and the battery. If you have a LHD car you have to take the steering column out too. I always wondered what the designers did next; I think the answer may be saildrives.
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lol
 
davidjackson said:
None of us would dream of buying a car or a truck that needed to have its engine and gearbox removed for routine maintenance, so why do we have to accept this pi55 poor engineering on boat?
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Not true - I had a car that required the engine to be dropped to change the spark plugs.

Only every 70,000 miles so similar to a saildrive

No prizes for guessing the model!
 
davidej said:
Not true - I had a car that required the engine to be dropped to change the spark plugs.

Only every 70,000 miles so similar to a saildrive
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On the air-cooled VWs you are expected to remove the engine to do almost anything to it - though you can change the plugs in situ. On the other hand, to remove the engine on a Beetle you only have to remove four nuts on the bellhousing (two bolts, two studs) and disconnect throttle able, petrol supply and electrical loom. Ten minutes, if that, when you are set up for it.

I was amazed to see references in the Motor Boat forum to setting the tappet clearances on a new Volvo marine engine. Tappets? This century?
 
JumbleDuck said:
I have a Citroën DS. The main hydraulic accumulator is a service item. To get at it, you have to remove the headlamp steering mechanism, the front wings, the radiator air ducting, the radiator, the alternator and the battery. If you have a LHD car you have to take the steering column out too. I always wondered what the designers did next; I think the answer may be saildrives.
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+2 for the observation

Me too (67DS21bvh) - It's the work of an afternoon to shift the accu and regulator to the front crossmember - I've spent that long trying to get that 6.36mm hydraulic line back in without stripping a thread....

cheers m'dears

David B
(was sunny, now nippy, in the Pyrenees)
 
I had a Citroen GS in my (relative) youth. The engine was worn and burning oil, so I had a look at the manual and came to the conclusion that I could easily fix it since it was a four cylinder air cooled lump with dry liners - just get the heads off and replace the liners, I thought. Getting the heads off was a lot more difficult than I anticipated, but I managed it, so off I went to the local Citroen dealer to get replacement liners. Their question was "are they red spot, green spot or blue spot?" When I asked what they meant, they explained that the production line ran to an accuracy of quite a large fraction of a millimetre - they paid some apprentice to sit at the end, measuring the bore diameter as the liners came off and marking them with different colour spots to indicate the dimension. These were then matched up to correspondingly marked pistons.

I reexamined my liners, sure enough there were the expected dots - I bought corresponding replacements and the engine ran fine again!
 
sailorman said:
Correct me if i am wrong but dry liners in a air cooled engine :nonchalance:
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Sleeves then - I only know them as dry liners. Remember that the Citroen GS engines were effectively large motor bike engines - flat four with a separate sleeved (or lined) cylinder block with radiator fins for each cylinder. Inside each of those cylinder blocks was a liner.
 
Halo said:
Yanmar's very high prices for spares make changing the seals a very expensive process. If you price up the parts (A and B diaphragms, clips, rubber fairing etc) you will have a shock. I reckon it cost me over £500 and I did it myself. If you pay £1000 for a professional job then for the 5 year life recommended by Yanmar is costing you £200 per year or £4/week, every week, just to maintain sail drive rubber.
I suspect some bod at Yanmar decided to boost profits by changing the recommendation from inpsect to change every 5 years.
I do like how my sail drive performs but Yanmar have gone right down in my estimation with this cover my a**e / profiteering trick .
Unless people refuse to buy boats with sail drives they will get more and more common as they allow boats to have more space below and hance attract SWMBOs
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In fairness, not Yanmar in Japan, but their distributor, either in the main European one in the Netherlands or (most likely) their distributor in the UK.
 
Getting back to saildrives, I've had thirty years good service from saildrive driven yachts, no issues at all. The Yanmar saildrive has an inner and outer seal, ie two, so failure of one isn't a problem. We've consulted with our insurers and they accept that an inspection of the inner one will suffice, no need to replace periodically.
 
savageseadog said:
Getting back to saildrives, I've had thirty years good service from saildrive driven yachts, no issues at all. The Yanmar saildrive has an inner and outer seal, ie two, so failure of one isn't a problem. We've consulted with our insurers and they accept that an inspection of the inner one will suffice, no need to replace periodically.
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Really? Who's your insurer?
 
daviddb said:
Me too (67DS21bvh) - It's the work of an afternoon to shift the accu and regulator to the front crossmember - I've spent that long trying to get that 6.36mm hydraulic line back in without stripping a thread....
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75DS23bvm in my case. Maybe even 76, which is technically impossible. You have brought back horrible memories of that pipe. If you could PM me a picture of your mod I'd be very grateful, as I have an opportunity to do it soon ...
 
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