Volvo Drives: am I just unlucky?

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NickLovell

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3 years ago I put down a deposit on a Botnia Targa 30, all v exciting my first proper boat!
Found only one surveyor who would look at drives at all. (Simon: recommend this bloke highly)
While on slings at gosport he undid the drain plug on each drive & also opened the drive bellows.
The port drive had oil emulsion in the bellows & internally.
Simon also spotted amongst loads of paperwork that this drive had just had £1000 spent on it at H******* of Gosport.
So boat failed survey, no sea trial possible as Simon felt the drive could fail in a serious way.
Significant time later & Vendor has spent a small fortune with VP agent) on port drive, I purchased the boat.

the following year while out on the hard, port drive has emulsion in it again.

Both drives rebuilt this time.

Earlier this year, moved the boat to a dry store facility at S'oton.
Went down to do some fettling about 6 weeks ago before major summer cruise: spotted oil slick under boat... port drive has leaked all its oil out, including some emulsion.

Cannot find anyone with any time to look at it, nor a spare one anywhere ('cept from Volvo at £5400).

Q: is it normal to have this many issues with VP drives?

A quick look round the yard I am in, & a significant No of boats on drives have got the drives off, this is now during the summer, so I conclude they aren't terribly reliable once they reach a certain age. As a result most of my summers are spent repairing VP stuff.

PS has anyone got a DPE 290 for sale!!
 
Q: is it normal to have this many issues with VP drives?

NO !... not in such short order.Outdrive problems on either of the two major makes tends to be one of either age or neglect or too frequently both.
Sounds to me like there is an underlying problem which needs finding before renewing shaft or gearbox seals.Bent/scored prop shaft,problem with gearshift shaft etc.
Worth contacting one of the independant outfits just up the coast from you,where selling you yet more shiney new stuff in a blue box with Volvo labels all over it is not the preferred option.
 
I sympathise entirely. Outdrives in an older boat for my money should be avoided like the plague. (You dont mention the age of yours) My old (12 years when I had it) fairline with VP 290 legs was an absolute pita. Despite thousands spent on maintenance they never got me through a single season without further (expensive) work. failed seals, failed latch mechanisms were the favourite. Looking after the legs was the over riding primary expense in running the boat. I vowed never to have them again unless I bought a brand new boat. Never could afford new so went for shafts - a revelation in reliabilty and cheap maintenance.
I know for a fact my experience (as yours) is definitely not unusual.
 
It depends on what you call a rebuild, I always change the prop shaft seals and the gearshift seal and if there has been water in the bellows its imperative to remove the U/J and inspect the surface that the top seal runs on as if this has rusted it will never seal, worst case new seal and input shaft.
Then to be 100% sure the drive should be pressure tested which is very simple and any decent VP workshop should have the bike pump` tester, if all is OK then it should go for several years before it requires any more serious work unless you are un lucky and get fishingline round the propshafts.
I'd get your drive pressure tested as it is to find out where its leaking, it could of course have a crack from impact damage, but the pressure test will pinpoint this.
 
You can get problems with older drives, my DP-D's are 17 years old, but still going strong. Ok, I've renewed a Universal joint, pretensioned the bearing and put it back. Ive renewed cone clutch and rebuilt it. The important thing is to make sure to renew all the o-rings and gaskets when you re-assemble.
Just recently renewed the steering fork bushes and seal.
But they are relatively easy to work on.
Incidentally you should be able to get an exchange unit from Coastal Rides for about £2k.

Eddie
 
We have a pair of 13 yr old DP-D drives on our Seawings which we've had nearly four years. We've had our fair share of troubles too, but these have been exacerbated by (prior) poor maintenance such as lip seals being fitted back to front, black silicone sealant being used inside the top box (suspect a desperate attempt to stop water ingress due to the seal fitted the wrong way round!) and shimming that was miles out. We've also had one clutch go and needed new output shafts due to scoring.

My opinion on these drives has varied over time, however I'm of the same opinion as KevB - look after them really well and they should be fine.

The problem buying used is that unless there is an iron clad service record (I found that documented work hadn't been done properly), you really have little idea of how they have been maintained or what's been done before as only so much can be checked without dismantling the drive, which isn't going to happen in a survey. Therefore, IMO buying a boat with used outdrives is always going to be a bit of a lottery, and the older the other the bigger the gamble. Incidentally, on the older drives at least, such as my DPDs, Volvo state that at 1000 hours they should be removed from tho boat for a rebuild!
 
Andrew_Fanner said:
And if any of this puts you off outdrives, join my club:-)
Click to expand...

I joined your club about 18 months ago when our single merc OD caused us more trouble and cost than all else on the boat added together, Caused us to miss a good part of the season and stopped two trips. We now have twin shafts. But, I agree, if they are meticulously maintained and serviced from new regularly, they are prob OK. Perhaps we were just unlucky too!!
 
Thankyou all

thanks for your replies, looks like I am not unlucky, its just par for the course
Can Anyone recomend a shaft drive boat....
 
Hate outdrives with a passion. would never ever have them. The thing that worries me is that most of my boats are around 20years old and in 15 years or more most of the 20 year old 40footers are gonna be IPS or outdrives or some **** like that. Good ol shafts cant go wrong, much.;) :D
 
I can see the advantages of shafts from a maintenance perspective. However I have owned boats with 10+ year old VP 290 DP outdrives for the last 10 years and the only problem i had was due to some fishing line wrecking the seals. scored a shaft but the drive itself was fine. I am quite fanatical about maintenance though. drive bellows every 2 years, oil every year and seals and cone clutches after 1000 hours.

Before I bought my targa 40 I looked at the options it on average I think what I saved on drive maintenance I would have spent on fuel for bigger engines for a similar shaft drive boat.

I went for drives as this allow us to get into shallow spots and drives would have limited our overnighting options in the nature reserve in holland where we keep the boat.

To be honest the electronics on the engine worry me more than the drives.

Rob
 
I had much the same story on my S34 AD41 DP's last year survey Aug 2009 found water in drives, £2K bill, I came to purchase boat May 2010 survey found some water still in drives £3K+ spend before I would accept boat. This time did include complete strip down and pressure tests etc. All now seems OK I hope the problem has been nailed.

Only thing I've noticed that when I get on the plane I trim both legs to about +1 a few minutes later I see the port leg has gone to 0 or even -1 the stb one remains as set. I dutifully reset to +1 and it repeats. What do I need to get checked out ?
 
Brains slow today :o, I thought about this a little more, the legs can be raised and lowered when the engines are not running, buy a switch, thus is this driving a pump or motor. If the latter no oil in the equation [I think].
 
CharlieAlpha said:
I had much the same story on my S34 AD41 DP's last year survey Aug 2009 found water in drives, £2K bill, I came to purchase boat May 2010 survey found some water still in drives £3K+ spend before I would accept boat. This time did include complete strip down and pressure tests etc. All now seems OK I hope the problem has been nailed.

Only thing I've noticed that when I get on the plane I trim both legs to about +1 a few minutes later I see the port leg has gone to 0 or even -1 the stb one remains as set. I dutifully reset to +1 and it repeats. What do I need to get checked out ?
Click to expand...

Most likely the valve in the trim pump leaking, easiest way to confirm is swap trim pumps over if problem is still on the same leg then its an internal leak in the trim cylinders.
 
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