Volvo Penta MD7B with 110s Saildrive - no reverse afte refit

[DrDom68]

Hi,

I have recently removed my sail drive to replace the seals, which failed when the rear saildrive mount was broken causing the seal to fail. I replaced the o-rngs and main hull seal, i split the saildrive to replace the internal seals, but did not strip the whole unit down.

Now she is back in the water, we found that it is selecting forward gear when moving the throttle in either direction, and netruel can be found though not easly, no reverse.

I had to leave the boat to return home, so didnt get chance to look into it.

I am hoping its a cable/ linkage problem to the saildrive, maybe the cable is moving in the clamp.... BUT i just want to check with my fellow forum users, could i have Fxxxd something up inside the sail drive... i am pretty careful but its in the back of my head.

Any similar problems? confirmation etc

 

[philwebb]

Hi Dr Dom, Unusual problem. But you can try to see if it is a cable problem by detaching the gear cable from the quadrant on the saildrive and with the engine on tickover try to move the gear quadrant by hand into forward, reverse and neutral. You would need to be tied up to a mooring or a pontoon obviously. Check that the quadrant itself is not loose. If you can select forward and reverse manually you have a cable or control lever problem. Since you didn’t take the saildrive apart, this is the most likely explanation.

 

[RichardS]

Almost certainly a cable adjustment problem. Check by loosening the clamps and operating the lever directly on the side of the saildrive.

Richard

 

[Tranona]

The gears are in the gearbox, not the drive leg, so more likely to be a cable connection problem.

 

[Moodysailor]

Agreed with the above, check the cables first.
If those are OK, from memory that gearbox uses a cone clutch. Check you used the correct oil as I have seen an occasional few cases where the incorrect oil causes slipping. Just a thought, good luck.

 

[Dunx]

From personal experience check both ends of the cable system, my last drama was on a charter boat when a screw came out internally on the morse lever box. It prevented neutral or reverse being selected.