Volvo 280 sterndrive - is my retaining pawl the right one??

[Feneris]

This will be hard to explain, and I don't know if each part has a name, so please see the photo's. I hope someone who knows this part can help.

The rod that connects to the swivel plate (which then connects to the throttle in the cockpit) presses on this part.

At the moment, this part is as 'high' as it can be, stopped by a pin on the hinge shaft. It's cast this way so seems correct.

Below is a photo of the same part side on, lower down. As the upper part rotates upwards, the lower arm moves backwards. It doesn't go back far enough to fully release the lower arms, which have the springs holding them.

I think the theory is, that when you're in neutral or forward, the parts held by springs should be free to move (up to their stop) against the springs. This is so that if you hit something in the water, the sterndrive will over come the spring pressure and unlatch from the trim bar.

At the moment this can't happen. In reverse, the lower part is pushed backwards and stops the lower spring arms from releasing.

It's all assembled, correctly, I think. I don't see how it can possibly work at the moment. It's as if there's too much metal on one part, not too little. This excludes wear. So has a 'wrong part' been fitted somewhere, or am I totally missing something????

 

[volvopaul]

The idea is that should you hit an underwater object the drive will kick up over it.

Fit the drive to the boat, select reverse, you ill see the half round part, the latch lower, try pulling the drive up , it should be locked down.

Make sure all parts move freely including the 2 parts at the side which are sprung loaded, use a screwdriver to free them off if seized, make sure the small spring in the middle is in good condition, if it's too long or has lost it spring capability then it won't work and the drive will kick up.

 

[Feneris]

Should have mentioned, the whole lot has been apart, cleaned (even if it doesn't look it) and greased. It latches all right, just won't release.

 

[volvopaul]

Should have mentioned, the whole lot has been apart, cleaned (even if it doesn't look it) and greased. It latches all right, just won't release.

Explain why you think it won't release, do you mean when it's in forward gear mounted on the boat? It won't do unless you pull down the catch, believe me it will when it's got 5 tons of boat to help it.

 

[Feneris]

Short reply as I'm typing on my mobile. Even with the mechanism is pieces, seeing how far I can move bits, the upper big part can't rotate fully out of the way. The actual pawl lower parts have a 'stop' built in so they can't go too far in asn impact driven release. That suggests they should move to the stop. The upper part only lets the lower clips rotate maybe 5 degrees instead of 20 degrees. At the moment it wouldn't release. When it's able to rotate further I imagine an impact could force a release

 

[Feneris]

Here is the diagram from the maintenannce manual. The first pic is what's in the manual, because it's zoomed in, I've added in red, what I think is the actual line of the parts (as it's hard to follow the low resolution drawing, the red isn't my parts mow). As you can see there's no overlap, and the lower arm can move. When the rod (top right) presses down, it will lock the lower pawl from lifting. See the above photo's of my part, which seems to be permanently locked.

Hence - Any ideas what's going on with my one??

 

[Peanuts]

Hi

Most things have seem to been covered by VP, however I am having a bit of a problem working out exactly the problem you seem to have.

I notice you mention that the retaining pawl assembly has been taken apart and cleaned - really? That aside and I don't want to teach you how to suck eggs but this is what I would do.

Ensure that both metal plates (spring hooks) that have the larger 2 springs on can freely pivot on their shaft, there should be a shim under each one of them. Do not tighten the ny-lock nuts right up tight. On that shaft there should be a smaller spring connecting to the bearing sleeve body (this is the one that normaly breaks/disappears.

If all of that is working correctly I cannot understand why it is not working, it is a simple sysytem. Let us know how you get on.

 

[Feneris]

It may look dirty but the whole lot has been off, wire brushed and old dirt scraped off. There is a thin washer (shim) on the lower parts, nyloc nuts aren't overtightened, all greased. Springs are all still effective.

The lower arms seem longer than they should be. Either they've been replaced with parts off another drive (same system but slightly different sizes) or I'm somehow totally missing something.

It seems too simple, and I've studied it closely, to have it assembled wrongly. But I cannot believe a part is wrong.......

 

[Peanuts]

Hi

Can you confirm that the smaller spring in the centre is fitted?

 

[Feneris]

Small centre spring is there too.

 

[PCUK]

Are you expecting to be able to pull the drive up by hand? If so then there may be nothing wrong as it takes a lot of impact pressure to unlatch the drive when striking underwater obstructions and manual lifting will not do it (unless it is unlatched manually of course).

 

[Feneris]

No. Right now even an impact won't release it as the pawl arms cannot rotate. It's as if the system is permanantly in reverse mode, when it stays firmly locked.

 

[Feneris]

It now turns out that it does (sort of) work. A friend with a 280 had a look at it, and worked out what's happening.

The leg hangs down and presses on the trim bar. When the leg is resting against the trim bar, the lower arms of the locking mechanism have already hit the trim bar and been pushed downwards. This rotates the mechanism, and places it in the position shown in the photos.

However, if you pull the leg aft, as it moves away from the trim bar the lower arms rotate upwards (pulled up by the small centre spring). The trim bar then becomes caught by the catches, the lower mechanism is raised slightly, and the other end has moved clean of the pivot arm that blocks it. Hence it is free to release.

I don't know if something is still wrong though. If you hit something underwater, the lower mechanism has to move slightly, before it's in place to allow a release. I guess ideally the leg would be sat in a slightly different position, maybe wear has affected it.

Cheers for all the replies, this one had me totally stumped.

(Sorry for the 'confusing' description, it's had to describe an assortment of metal pieces, springs and levels buried in a mechanism)

 

[Feneris]

Although a new bit of confusion elsewhere, with a washer that goes on the prop shaft. I would have though this would have been 'symmetrical', i.e, the whole perfectly in the middle. It's the washer that goes between the propellor and securing prop nut. You bend the tabs over to stop the prop nut from rotating. And the distances aren't different because of the presence of a tooth on one side!! I had the vernier calipers out to measure this; should it be central??? Even without the ruler it's obviously off centre!

 

[scottie]

It is a vernier and only one tab is meant to engage!

 

[scottie]

May be Volvo are using some fiendish type of engineering cunning purely designed to baffle the intelligentsia.

 

[Feneris]

Unevenly spaced tabs round the edge make sense, but surely the hole should be in the middle. Some tabs don't reach the prop nut so could never be used. It's in place though, so I'll not worry about it.

 

[scottie]

Do you have a bar anode fitted none of your photos show that area?
Also if corrosion a problem consider triangular anodes as extra.

 

[Feneris]

When I've bought another bolt, I'll fit the bar anode. As the release mechanism didn't work, the trim bar had been removed and the bar anode was only bolted on at one end, so it could be rotated out of the way of the leg, which sat too far back as a result of no trim bar. So I need another bolt, which is of course imperial so harder to get hold of.

The slow process of discovery when you buy an old boat!