Volvo D4 260 revving out but no drive

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CorkBouy

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Hi all,
Today when I was returning from a trip out the harbour I put the throttle down and the the revs went up but there was no drive from the props. It felt almost like the shaft was spinning without the props, the engine would rev full but no bite from the props. When I took it back down I was able to limp back to the Marinina at around 8 Knots of speed.
No arms came on and all the gauges were reading as normal.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
 
Step 1, lift the drive, make sure a prop hasn't actually fallen off (yes, this has happened to me).

Most likely it's probably just one propellor that has a spun hub.
Lift the drive to the highest position, make a paint mark inline on the cone and the two props and go out again.

If the paint marks on the cone and four bladed prop are out of line when you get back, it's the four bladed prop (most likely).
If the other prop is out of line, it's the three bladed forward prop (less likely).

These props can be re-hubbed, but it needs to be done by someone with a decent sized press.
 
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Thanks guys. Will try this and see if it works. Can I take the prop off while the boat is still in the water or would I need to haul out to do it?
 
It depends on the boat.

On mine, if I lift the drives to the maximum height, it's just about possible on a calm day to change props in the water if you are really careful about not dropping things.
 
CorkBouy said:
It is still going into forward and reverse. It’s when I try to put The power on that it starts to slip.
Click to expand...
It does seem a little softer when going in to gear now. When I tilted the drive and rotated the props by hand the movement seemed normal.
 
CorkBouy said:
When I tilted the drive and rotated the props by hand the movement seemed normal.
Click to expand...

if the hubs have failed The props will feel fine when rotated by hand, if you do what flowerpower suggests and mark the hub and prop, that will tell you whether the prop hubs have failed
 
FlowerPower said:
Step 1, lift the drive, make sure a prop hasn't actually fallen off (yes, this has happened to me).

Most likely it's probably just one propellor that has a spun hub.
Lift the drive to the highest position, make a paint mark inline on the cone and the two props and go out again.

If the paint marks on the cone and four bladed prop are out of line when you get back, it's the four bladed prop (most likely).
If the other prop is out of line, it's the three bladed forward prop (less likely).

These props can be re-hubbed, but it needs to be done by someone with a decent sized press.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much. I marked the prop and cone and sure enough the two marks were out after I ran it again. I have now lifted the boat out and removed the prop and it is obvious that it has spun. I have ordered new rubber and will bring it to the propeller workshop for them to press the old one out and the new one in.
Would you know if this is relatively easy to do with a press and is there any special glues required to seal the new one in?
 
Surely you’d know if you’d hit the ground hard enough to do this. And on both drives ?? You’d be really aware of it or unlucky. Is it maybe possible that you have by mistake pressed the button that allows you to Rev without engaging gear ? I know some D3 set ups have this bottom on the control alarm info panel on the dash.
 
QBhoy said:
Surely you’d know if you’d hit the ground hard enough to do this. And on both drives ?? You’d be really aware of it or unlucky. Is it maybe possible that you have by mistake pressed the button that allows you to Rev without engaging gear ? I know some D3 set ups have this bottom on the control alarm info panel on the dash.
Click to expand...
You don't have to have hit the ground to cause the prop hubs to fail, they can eventually just fail on their own through age/amount of use, as well as failing when they were designed to fail (ie when the prop strikes something).

And were not talking about two engines having failed hubs at the same time here.
 
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QBhoy said:
Surely you’d know if you’d hit the ground hard enough to do this. And on both drives ?? You’d be really aware of it or unlucky. Is it maybe possible that you have by mistake pressed the button that allows you to Rev without engaging gear ? I know some D3 set ups have this bottom on the control alarm info panel on the dash.
Click to expand...

I just refitted my G-Series prop yesterday from having it re-hubbed.
I didn’t run aground or hit anything, honest! :LOL:
These things just happen ... D-Series engines produce huge amounts of torque, and the prop hubs can just give up after a period of time.
 
Thanks all for your inputs. The advice on the hubs really helped.
When I took the boat out the props had signs of me hitting a rope which may have caused the hubs spinning along with being around 16 years old if the previous owners never replaced them which it didn't look like they had.
I have now replaced the hubs on both props and put the boat back in the water. Running perfectly now again.
Happy boating everyone
 
When I had mine re-bushed I was told to Run them in and not go straight to WOT. from memory I was advised by a couple of people to ensure this was done
 
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