Saildrive seal replacement

I did ours in 2012, a 1995 boat, so well overdue according to Volvo replacement intervals.

I’m in no hurry to do it again based on the condition of what was removed.
 
PabloPicasso said:
So a 1981 saildrive would've been an early one.

All very interesting.

Why does Volvo recommend such short service intervals

Is it "CYA" or a marketing ploy?
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Yes. See posr#12 for the history. I had some involvement in saildrive development at the time and there was a lot of scepticism about the vulnerability of the diaphragm mainly in the US hence the decision to make the periodic replacement recommendation. Not based on any science or obviously experience - just expedient marketing. The diaphragm is unchanged in both design and material and the same unit does everything from the original 7hp up now 75hp. Pretty robust and long lived bit of kit. Much the same applies to the Volvo rubber shaft seal except that it is prone to wear on the lip seals over time. Similar 5 year replacement recommendation which is mostly ignored.
 
Tranona said:
Yes. See posr#12 for the history. I had some involvement in saildrive development at the time………
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With my automotive background, I fail to understand why there wasn’t push-back to make it a serviceable item?

The amount of work involved, plus the risk of secondary damage due to carelessness, seems disproportionate compared to some arbitrary, finger in the air, life prediction based upon no facts.

As I’ve said many times before, an eloquent piece of design but an incomplete piece of engineering.
 
Skylark said:
With my automotive background, I fail to understand why there wasn’t push-back to make it a serviceable item?

The amount of work involved, plus the risk of secondary damage due to carelessness, seems disproportionate compared to some arbitrary, finger in the air, life prediction based upon no facts.

As I’ve said many times before, an eloquent piece of design but an incomplete piece of engineering.
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The project I was working on had the drive solidly mounted to the hull but the power unit did not require flexible mounting and the gearbox was in the lower leg. The Volvo design uses a standard flexibly mounted power unit including gearbox bolted solidly to the drive leg, hence the need for a flexible through hull mounting. That could have been avoided by isolating the engine from the drive leg with a short driveshaft, but that would have made the whole package too big and added cost. So the "elegant" solution was tthe diaphragm. I believe the intention was that it would last indefinitely so no attempt was made to make it a simple service replacement item.

Electric saildrives such as Oceanvolt use solid through hull mounting.
 
As it happens I’m about to have my 20 year old Yanmar diaphragm and leg seals replaced. This is the quote from the Solent base engineer for an estimated 2 days work.
The bottom end shaft seals will be part of the job anyway as that will need to be removed to get the leg out. With the mounts this can be sorted at the same time and I will evaluate them the day I will start and let you know.

The cost for this is,
Labour £1300
Parts £882.91
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CJU said:
As it happens I’m about to have my 20 year old Yanmar diaphragm and leg seals replaced. This is the quote from the Solent base engineer for an estimated 2 days work.
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Is that plus VAT? That means his hourly rate is over £90 a hour, assuming 8 hour day with a lunch break. If you're the end user paying VAT on that, £111 an hour :(
 
wonkywinch said:
Is that plus VAT? That means his hourly rate is over £90 a hour, assuming 8 hour day with a lunch break. If you're the end user paying VAT on that, £111 an hour :(
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Probably 2 men as 1 will struggle to remove leg, unless the 'professionals' have an easier way than we did. 1 outside to support and hand upwards through the hull.
 
I had my 120 vp saildrive diaphragm replaced by Fox's engineers in March of this year.Included was fitting a speedi sleeve to the worn output shaft, supplying and fitting an anode for the ambassador rope cutter, and modifying a new michigan 2 bade 14x10 prop to fit the rope cutter ,new hull mat,oils etc. This was followed by an hours river trial with the engineer to make sure all was good.
Total cost was £1873 incl Vat.
Incidentally the new prop gives far better stopping power than the original volvo
 
CJU said:
As it happens I’m about to have my 20 year old Yanmar diaphragm and leg seals replaced. This is the quote from the Solent base engineer for an estimated 2 days work.
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£882.91 for parts seems a bit pricy, just looked at Genuine VP parts.
Diaphram Kit £328
Hull fairing 83
Shaft seals x2 £60
O rings x2 £12
Adhesive for fairing £30
so about £513 including VAT from VP with no discount which I would expect, but suspect genuine parts from parts4engines will be much less. Worth shopping around.
 
yotter said:
£882.91 for parts seems a bit pricy, just looked at Genuine VP parts.
Diaphram Kit £328
Hull fairing 83
Shaft seals x2 £60
O rings x2 £12
Adhesive for fairing £30
so about £513 including VAT from VP with no discount which I would expect, but suspect genuine parts from parts4engines will be much less. Worth shopping around.
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But it is a Yanmar, not a Volvo and it is not DIY.
 
Skylark said:
With my automotive background, I fail to understand why there wasn’t push-back to make it a serviceable item?

The amount of work involved, plus the risk of secondary damage due to carelessness, seems disproportionate compared to some arbitrary, finger in the air, life prediction based upon no facts.

As I’ve said many times before, an eloquent piece of design but an incomplete piece of engineering.
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The point about the risk of secondary damage / defects isn’t lost on me, call me a cynic but there seems a good prospect of introducing “new” problems afterwards :(
 
bob the ancient mariner said:
I had my 120 vp saildrive diaphragm replaced by Fox's engineers in March of this year.Included was fitting a speedi sleeve to the worn output shaft, supplying and fitting an anode for the ambassador rope cutter, and modifying a new michigan 2 bade 14x10 prop to fit the rope cutter ,new hull mat,oils etc. This was followed by an hours river trial with the engineer to make sure all was good.
Total cost was £1873 incl Vat.
Incidentally the new prop gives far better stopping power than the original volvo
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What prop was the original, and which type did you replace it with?
 
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