Volvo 290DP tilt ram - is this a serious problem?

[RIN]

The boat came out of the water for a clean on Tuesday - not all that fouled really but was able to replace the anodes on the legs.
However, I noticed that a small rubber seal of some sort had split and come down the shaft of one of the tilt rams (Volvo DP). It was very small and thin and I hope its not an actual seal but some sort of bumper and can wait for next spring before attention. Or do I need to get the boat out of the water and have it fixed straight away? Anyone familiar with these?

 

[volvopaul]

It could just be the wiper seal, but its been dislodged due to marine growth, maybe test the rams to check for leaks, also test the drive with the rams up to see if the leg drops, you will know if there is an internal leak.

 

[Questor]

As Volvo Paul says lift the leg up and see if it falls, and also check for leaks.

We had a ram go on our Targa 27, just prior to re-launching. I decided to replace the lot with a later version as it was a known problem. They cost about £700-800 for the set and this was about 8 years ago.

It gets worse. The retaining pins would not come out due to the positioning of some wooden battens that Fairline had fitted to the transom when building the boat, so both engines had to come out, to gain access.

I hope you're not so unlucky.

 

[RIN]

Thanks for the info. I think I will be ok then as I noticed it when the legs were fully raised so I could scrape more barnacles off the leg. There was no fluid leaking out.
Is fitting a new wiper seal easy or is it something I really neeed a marine engineer for?

 

[gimmesunshine]

for sure peanuts will be along to explain
mine have been like this for 2 years
its a scraper ring meant to clean of bulk of any crud grown on the shaft as it goes back in the ram
i always leave the legs tucked right in when i leave the boat so no growth can occur
eventually i am sure the rams will need replacing but instead of pulling the engines out, you can replace the inards, save on the labour big time. even so still not cheap as the rams are not cheap
as long as not leaking fluid e=leave it till next spring
i usually plaster the ring with waterproof grease before relaunching, as i said been 2 years like this with no problems

 

[Peanuts]

Here I am, totally agree with you regarding the wiper seal, always leave leg tucked right in to prevent anything attacking the rams, and as you also state cover the end of the wiper seal with waterproof grease, the main reason being that the spring inside the seal is not stainless, look around other 290 outdrives and you will see brown rust stains coming from the wiper (vee type) seal. So as Volvopaul states if it's not leaking it should be OK. Have looked in my little book but can't find the part number for that seal at the moment but will hopefully let you know soon. OK

Steve

 

[RIN]

The best trim I have found is to have the legs at -5 or at the most -3 so the legs are always tucked right in. Any venture into +ve trim just slows the boat down.
Bit of a relief that it can be left until the boat comes out in the spring. Thanks for the posts everyone

 

[Nigelhg]

I had leaky rams on one of my outdrives last year, it is a pig of a job to do -mainly getting the pins to release. If you do have to do it rather than replacing them you can get them refurbished. I took my rams to a local hydraulic specialist and he was able to refurbish them which included replacing seals and rechroming the arms for £35 each.