Volvo Penta Sx question

[sharps45]

I'm just curious as to how many owners of these actually pull them apart to grease the inner bearings every year as recommended. It seems like a real pain in the posterior and a poor design.
Also, is there any way of rerouting the zerc to an outside fitting with maybe a flex hose to alleviate this problem? thanks

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

What inner bearings are you referring to? The only ones that get greased are the gimbal bearing and some ujoints if they have zirks on them. The gimbal bearing as a zirk on the outside of the transom shield.
No reason to pull the drive apart though. Now if you was talking aboult taking the drive OFF the boat, then that's not a big deal. You really need to use some spline grease on the ujoint shaft going into the coupler and to CHECK the alignment to make sure it ok. Same with Mercruiser, and the OMC Cobra drives. Nothing different with the SX compared to the others. It even looks like an OMC Cobra, mostly because Volvo bought out OMC Sterndrive about 10 years ago.

 

[Coors]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

uh oh, did I hear anything remotely inferring that Volvo used an OMC design?

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

Kinda! When OMC and Volvo went into the joint venture (What they called it in the prebuyout days) The transom shield (inner and outer) exhaust Y manifolds, risers etc. were all very close to the OMC design. Some parts even interchangeable.
The drive however only looked like the OMC Cobra. The insides were all proven Volvo cone clutch. No ESA, no lower shift cables, none of the stuff that actually caused problems.

 

[sharps45]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

The manual says the primary shaft needs to be done every year, which entails pulling the drive off. It just seems like a poor design to me to be so labor intensive for a yearly thing.

 

[njlarry]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

I asked this same question before. Most said do what the manual says. However I don't believe many owners do. My mech said it is not necessary. What I do; replace the bellows and gimbel after 3-4 seasons and shoot 6-8 pumps of grease in the zerk every fall. The new gimbels are sealed so that will eliminate the fall greasing and the u joints will get greased with each bellows change.

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

It just seems like a poor design to me to be so labor intensive for a yearly thing.

Well, design a better mouse trap.

PS: It's NOT that labor intensive. Pulling and reinstalling the drive is a very easy job.

 

[mikeneal]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

Another thing is you should pull the drive off periododically to looking around in there anyhow. Gives you a shot at catching a leaking seal, bellows, check alignment etc. You can/should do more then just pump little grease in there and put the drive back on. Like Don says too, the drive is pretty easy. Only time it has taken more then 30 minutes is when the drive had not been off in a while and was corroded in place. Heck a had a guy try to steal an Alpha one from my boat once and I bet he was not here more then 3 minutes...but that's another story.

 

[Lou C]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

I usually had the shop R&R mine every year because I am in a salt water area and the boat is moored in the water 6 months. I think it is necessary even for trailer boats in freshwater. This season I pulled mine off myself for the first time, I built a stand because I didn't want to stress my back out of wack! Anyway removal is pretty easy, as long as it has been done with regularity. What I noticed is that even though I only used the boat about 2 1/2 months last season, the grease on the splines and U-joints looked kind of old to me (last serviced in spring 2006, but boat was not used that summer at all due to deck/stringer replacement). So I felt it was much better to have fresh grease in there, for a full season coming up. Also as was noted, you will catch an leak in the bellows, or the seal on the driveshaft, before it causes a big problem, rather than having water in the bilge rust the gimble and u-joints, leading to a major failure. If you have an I/O this is part of the design of most of them, think of a car or SUV with constant velocity joints, if one gets a tear in the boot, and you drive thru deep puddles long enough, the joint will be shot. Your I/O operates like that, but all the time.
If you don't want to do this, you would probably be happier with an outboard. I/Os by their nature, require more maintenance, OBs less, but they have their issues too.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

no primary shaft on the SX, it does have a drive shaft that needs to be greased when the shaft alignment is checked at the yearly maint.
simple drive to maintain but expensive if ya dont.

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

I THINK when he says primary shaft he is referring to the splined ujoint shaft that goes into the coupler.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

DonS, maybe but I think they called the shaft in the swedish drive bellhousings a primary shaft.
some of the aftermarket manuals tend to confuse the two by not keeping them in seperate chapters.
in this game correct terminology can sometimes mean the difference between fixed and junk .

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

I agree about the terminology, but he also said in the title it's an SX.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

DonS, I know he was referencing an SX, on that note a few weeks ago I had a guy bring in his manual with a highlighted procedure, draw back was the clymers had the wrong info with the correct photo. the chapter was confusing unless you already knew what it was.
the older volvo manuals were bad enough but sometimes seloc and clymer could actually beat them .
when a primary shaft and inner bearings are mentioned I tend to think of the swedish drive with the grease zerk,or plug, in the back of the bellhousing.
and its not the first aftermrket manual to have the photos and captions transposed.
draw back to trying to write a fitem all manual.

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

Can't go by anything but what they tell us.
Like the guy in the other thread with a 1995 280DP outdrive.
What's wrong with that picture?????

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

yep, sometimes they cant even tell me what color it is .
however thats what keeps us in decent shoes .

 

[sharps45]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

I would have thought they could use a flex hose to an outside zirc to grease the inner splines. I just know the instructions in my manual make this sound like a job for Mr. Goodboat, not your average owner. If I were to support the drive by ropes from the garage beams, would that make it easier? Also, do I just get the necessary o rings and stuff from a dealer, or is it cheaper online? My closest dealer is 120+ miles away.

Actually, the discussion was mostly what I was getting at, because after changing the oil in mine for the first time last summer, I don't want to go through that again. The bruises and slices from moulding my body into the engine housing to get at the oil filter made me realize that whatever it might cost, someone else is doing it next time. So I was wondering how many owners actually go through all the trouble to grease the inside parts.

Thanks all for the info.

 

[Don S]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

So I was wondering how many owners actually go through all the trouble to grease the inside parts.

If they don't grease the splines on the shaft where they go into the coupler, the will learn what it means to pull the engine out of the boat to replace the coupler.
The boat manufacturers are to blame, they design and build the boat around the engine so manitenance is almost impossible.
Not uncommon to see a boat that has to have the engine pulled to change starters. raw water pump impellers, manifolds, even worked on a Campion that I had to pull the engine on to do a tuneup.

I would have thought they could use a flex hose to an outside zirc to grease the inner splines.

Mercruiser actually has zirks on the coupler. But the fact is, you still have to pull the drive for alignment checks and to check for water in the bellows, and just general inspection.

As far as parts go, look at the top of the page where is says VOLVO PARTS, what do you think that means??

 

[Lou C]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

Here is the drive stand I made to save your back:

 

[Lou C]

Re: Volvo Penta Sx question

I would have thought they could use a flex hose to an outside zirc to grease the inner splines. I just know the instructions in my manual make this sound like a job for Mr. Goodboat, not your average owner. If I were to support the drive by ropes from the garage beams, would that make it easier? Also, do I just get the necessary o rings and stuff from a dealer, or is it cheaper online? My closest dealer is 120+ miles away.

Actually, the discussion was mostly what I was getting at, because after changing the oil in mine for the first time last summer, I don't want to go through that again. The bruises and slices from moulding my body into the engine housing to get at the oil filter made me realize that whatever it might cost, someone else is doing it next time. So I was wondering how many owners actually go through all the trouble to grease the inside parts.

Thanks all for the info.

Don't bother with ropes, if you are handy with woodworking build one of these, (in the previous post) took me an afternoon with wood I had left over from a garage project.

You can get stuff from many on line retailers, I used Doug Russell many times in the past with good results

And bending yourself into a pretzel to get at the oil filter, welcome to the world of I/Os and inboards, that is why some engines now have remote mount oil filters. Mine isn't too bad, I slide back the port side battery and I can get in there. Keeps me from getting fat!

Seriously that is why some people like outboards so much.