Volvo Outdrives Cautionary Tale

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ps1

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Decided to replace the outdrive bellows which have been on the boat for nearly three years. As the drives are very rarely raised I reasoned that not a lot of wear and tear would occur and therefore a three year interval would be reasonable.

Bellows were fine, will change anyway, but one of the worm drive clips had corroded through and failed, allowing water into the drive area luckily without damaging the universal. So, bellows seem to be OK for three years provided not exercised unduly, but the bits holding them on (Volvos best stainless) may well be past their sell by date.

The oil in the drive with the broken clip looked and smelt like old black engine oil (outdrives - replacement, reconditioned about thirty hours ago), can the panel throw some light on how outdrive oil can get so black in so short a time.
 
ps1 said:
I've just remembered why I stopped posting on the forum !!
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:confused:
It was a good post, when I read it I thought 'there by the grace........'
I used to push to three years but then I was only floating for 7 months a year, 4 months of that was in fresh water.

I am sure the Volvo approved mechanic I used back then re used the stainless clips because they were close to hand and he didnt have to reach to get the new ones out the box !

I think you have been unlucky , perhaps a bad fault in the stainless or perhaps you also had a lazy mechanic that re used your clips ?
 
ps1 said:
I've just remembered why I stopped posting on the forum !!
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If yo where sat under water for three years would you be in good condition when you came back out?

The marine environment is a harsh one for materials to survive in. We pushed ours to 18 months but wouldnt want to take it any further than that. Who knows what is going on in the drive until it is lifted and inspected.
 
CX54WEK said:
If yo where sat under water for three years would you be in good condition when you came back out?

The marine environment is a harsh one for materials to survive in. We pushed ours to 18 months but wouldnt want to take it any further than that. Who knows what is going on in the drive until it is lifted and inspected.
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Not wanting to sound like i'm taking the pi55, but 18 months is not "pushing it". Volvo recommend replacement bellows every two years. I'd want to change the oil every year though.
 
I would have thought that 316 clips would last longer than three years as there is no electrolytic or galvanic corrosion to affect them as they are insulated from all other metals by the gaiter. Sounds like a dodgy clip to me but a point worth mentioning as this could happen to anyone!
 
PaulGooch said:
Not wanting to sound like i'm taking the pi55, but 18 months is not "pushing it". Volvo recommend replacement bellows every two years. I'd want to change the oil every year though.
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If you are lifting the boat to change the oil you may as well change the bellows, anodes and any seals that may be dodgy. If a job is worth doing its worth doing properly.
 
CX54WEK said:
If you are lifting the boat to change the oil you may as well change the bellows, anodes and any seals that may be dodgy. If a job is worth doing its worth doing properly.
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You may well be right that "you may as well" do it. As for if it's "properly", well Volvo say 2 years, so technically doing them every year is "not properly" :D

My point was simply, though, 18 months isn't pushing it :)
 
The screw clips should have been electrically bonded to the outdrive, via little tabs that fit under them, which are attached to a stainless wire bolted to the transom shield. Certainly that is the case for both DPS drives I have had. The trim cylinders, tilt housing, gimbal housing are all "daisy chained" together and so are protected by the anodes. I've never found any corrosion on the clips (the stainless props are another matter, they suffer from crevice corrosion!)

The only screw clip not protected is the one on the water inlet hose not normally seen, as it sits within the tilt housing; I've never found any corrosion on that one either ( so far, before this season after 5 six month immersions in salt water).

Graham
 
The oil you drain from the outdrive should be a clean golden colour - the same colour it was when you put it in. I've seen black oil come from outdrives and think it was ordinary engine oil which had over heated and burnt and had been used instead of the fully synthetic hypoid gear oil.
Some people get confused as to what oil they can use because the earlier single prop drives could use engine oil, but all duoprops should have the fully sythetic stuff.

Eddie
 
Pendana said:
The oil you drain from the outdrive should be a clean golden colour - the same colour it was when you put it in. I've seen black oil come from outdrives and think it was ordinary engine oil which had over heated and burnt and had been used instead of the fully synthetic hypoid gear oil.
Some people get confused as to what oil they can use because the earlier single prop drives could use engine oil, but all duoprops should have the fully sythetic stuff.

Eddie
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Should be clean and golden yes, ours had gone milky due to water contamination caused by fishing line around the props cutting the shaft seals. Luckily it wasnt too bad and we caught it before it started causing damage, although the fully synthetic oil looked quite good at holding the water in suspension.
 
Simple answer.

2 year max for bellows.

1 year for clips its part of the service.

1 year for oil as water will get no matter what over a period of time, black oil may be due to 2 things, either its not been changed for years or the cone is slipping causing the oil to overheat.

When you think of the investment in a boat its absolutely false economy not to change parts every year, a lot of people compare engines in boats to cars, trucks and vans, now imagine your merc gearbox or diff/axle buried in seawater all its life, and its engine only used once a month or so, then shut down in a hot damp engine room, thats where all the problems start, basically from the day it leaves the factory!
 
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Thanks for all replies, especially Volvopaul, I will have the oil analyzed to confirm whether overheat caused by clutch slip or by filling with 'engine oil' (280 outdrives) rather than new engine oil. 'Reconditioned' can mean many things!!
 
That 280 if an early version could use your standard diesel engine oil.Have always used this in the past and one of my outdrives is running on this.However last year had some whiney bearings replaced by a local firm and they refilled with sae90.
Manual says use what ever has been used before.
As regards those SS clips,seem to remember reading somewhere that stainless and rubber are not the best of friends esp. in seawater apparently the carbon in the rubber reacts with the stainless,might have been on David Pascoes website.
Actually it might have been aluminium that corrodes badly on contact with rubber,hence Volvo bringing out that repair kit for the exhaust horn.
 
Just bought the replacements from Keypart, specified original Volvo part for drive bellows. The drive bellows clips are marked ABA on the drive portion, the same as the clip that failed. Interestingly, the clip failed through corrosion on the inside face against the bellows, supporting Oldgits theory.
 
ps1 said:
Just bought the replacements from Keypart, specified original Volvo part for drive bellows. The drive bellows clips are marked ABA on the drive portion, the same as the clip that failed. Interestingly, the clip failed through corrosion on the inside face against the bellows, supporting Oldgits theory.
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Just to throw an idea in. I've got Mercruiser Bravo legs, I've never changed the bellows, always left that to my dealer, but I do remember reading that there is metal 'clip...er thing' on the bellows that must be positioned in the right place to keep the continuity........

Volvo's may well be different, but could this be some thing to do with stopping or slowing the corrosion on the clips by bringing them in to the circuit so to speak??
 
ps1 said:
Just bought the replacements from Keypart, specified original Volvo part for drive bellows. The drive bellows clips are marked ABA on the drive portion, the same as the clip that failed. Interestingly, the clip failed through corrosion on the inside face against the bellows, supporting Oldgits theory.
Click to expand...

That suggests you may have suffered from crevice corrosion. Stainless needs oxygen to retain it's anti corrosion properties. Where oxygen is absent, stainless can rust just as well as other metals.
 
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