Missing bolts - Stern Drive collar.. mental

[DrDom68]

Hi

As you can see below i have missing bolts on the collar, surely this is not right, considering the stern drive was fullly serviced a few years ago.

Just checking that its not common to have missing bolts on a ETAP 28 with a volvo penta md7a , i presume its the wrong collar and they couldnt get the other bolts in, as i see no holes. mind you 6 out of 10 aint bad... well apart from it being a boat and its the biggest hole in it! mental

This would explain why the boat was taking in water.... at last

About to pull the engine out to get to it properly, thought i will ask before i get into it.

Any advice welcome, thank you

 

[DrDom68]

update - there is no holes where the bolts are missing, wrong collar?

 

[penberth3]

update - there is no holes where the bolts are missing, wrong collar?

View attachment 115071

So no missing bolts! Could it be a collar designed to fit different flanges with different hole patterns?

 

[DrDom68]

So no missing bolts! Could it be a collar designed to fit different flanges with different hole patterns?

not sure every video i look at they all have all the bolt holes, with bolts

 

[coveman]

You may get some help if you post this on the Etap Facebook Group pages - Facebook Groups

 

[penfold]

Is it leaking from that joint? If not then it's not a problem. The only thing that flange does is hold the diaphragm in place, it's stiff enough to hold with just 6 fasteners. No harm in fitting the fasteners if it's causing worry, although it's not clear what they're screwing into; are there glassed in captive nuts or what?

 

[DrDom68]

Is it leaking from that joint? If not then it's not a problem. The only thing that flange does is hold the diaphragm in place, it's stiff enough to hold with just 6 fasteners. No harm in fitting the fasteners if it's causing worry, although it's not clear what they're screwing into; are there glassed in captive nuts or what?

Yes, thanks for your response, captive nuts, should there not be sealant at least between the collar and fibreglass?

 

[penfold]

No, there's nothing to seal; there is likely to be sealant/mastic between the rubber diaphragm and the GRP though.

 

[springer]

Hi Dr Dom, a couple of points. the dark grey clamp ring is used for all VP saildrive seals. It is also not the original from your boat, which would be a different colour, same colour as the gearbox at the top of your saildrive. The original GRP bed for earlier models did not have the same number of captive nuts as the current models. What you are looking at is normal for saildrives of this era. Secondly the rubber diaphragm should be seated dry on a clean and dry seat when fitted. definitely no sealant or the like. If you have seawater in the bilge it is possible, but unlikely that the diaphragm is the cause. Check out the usual causes first, sea water pump seals, pipe seals exhaust etc.

Good luck.

Springer.