When to renew Yanmar 1GM10 saildrive leg seals?

[ianwoods]

I have a Yanmar with a saildrive leg passing via two rubber seals through the bottom of the boat. No leakage of water into the engine bay nor any sound from the interseal leakage alarm. The seals are original - 1992 - and seem fine. Volvo have a 7 year life. Any comments?

 

[DaveS]

No experience of the Yanmar, but...

I replaced my Volvo leg seal when it was about 13 yo and, after cleaning, it looked almost identical to the new one. It felt the same too: no cracks, splits, hardness or brittleness. I suspect that 7 years gives a massive safety margin.

Many will, of course, argue for replacement on schedule on the basis of the relative values of seal (not trivial, however, and a fair bit of work) versus boat. If the insurers takes that line there may be little choice, but do they? Requiring rigging replacement at 10 years is a commonly stated insurance condition, but what of other bits? Presumably there will be standard "catch all" weasel words...

 

[PIGLETSDREAM]

I have just done the very same, save for the fact that mine was on a 3GM, no leaks looked and felt fine, but I just had the nagging sense that kept saying you know it makes sense. And so I changed them. At least I have another 7 years of insurance safety, if nothing else!

 

[ianwoods]

Thanks for the advice. How tricky and time consuming was the replacement?