Warning to Volvo Penta owners

[leibin81]

I feel compelled to warn anyone who has a volvo outdrive of a possible assembly problem with the outdrive. If you remove the backplate of the outdrive, you will see the throttle cable attached to the shifting rod, which attaches to the shifting mechanism. There are four or more points where these joints are connected by a pin and then a cottering pin is slid through to lock the pin in place. All of those cottering pins were rusted, the wrong size and not bent correctly. I am assuming this was done at the manufacturer, so my outdrive isn't the only one with this problem.<br />I was left with a boat that was stuck in drive, right near a dock, and it was near disaster. I have since changed them out to all stainless steel cottering pins and bent them over so that they are aircraft grade. Just something you might check if you haven't already.

 

[Don S]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

Volvo uses brass cotter pins, they come with the installation kit for the drive.<br />My guess is your boat was repaired by someone that didn't know the difference, possibly during maintenance.<br />Besides, you didn't mention what year, model or anything.<br /><br />Just read your other post, you have a 1986 drive, after 20 years, those cotter pins would have been replaced many times just during normal maintenace, It's not a factory problem.

 

[leibin81]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

Volvo does use brass cotter pins. After what I have been through, I thought it was important to let people know what to look for. I definitely prefer stainless hardware, and making sure they are bent correctly. After looking at the cotter pin installation, I quickly learned that they were just pulled through the hole, and half-heartedly split. Those cotter pins need to be bent back over the outside of the connecting pin. This is now aircaraft grade, and much more reliable. It only takes a couple of minutes to check, and is well worth it. Trust me, I was coming into dock and I had a boat stuck in drive. Scarry situation to get caught in. Just trying to help others avoid the problem.

 

[scottatwork]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

WHere are these cotter pins?<br /><br />I have a 1986 275 out drive, I'll check mine as it probably needs some maintenance there.<br /><br /><br />Tx

 

[marinemech1]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

improper/lack of maintance does not make a product bad<br />bad service makes a product bad<br />by the way when you remove the "back plate from the drive" your looking at the shift cable

 

[bigbrownbuku]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

Originally posted by Don S:<br /> Volvo uses brass cotter pins, they come with the installation kit for the drive.<br />My guess is your boat was repaired by someone that didn't know the difference, possibly during maintenance.<br />Besides, you didn't mention what year, model or anything.<br /><br />Just read your other post, you have a 1986 drive, after 20 years, those cotter pins would have been replaced many times just during normal maintenace, It's not a factory problem.

i had an apprentice tell me once stainless steel wire and solder looked and felt the same...

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

this post needs to be renamed warning to idiots that know more than the design engineer, like it was posted, yhe originals were brass and dont corrode, whatever idiot replaced it with steel is the problem not the manufacturer.<br /> however I see idiots all the time that know more than the rest of us yet cannot identify themselves as idiots.<br />while aircraft grade is great in an airplane sometimes its not so good for a submarine.<br />but just think how much money was saved by not using genuine volvo penta replacement parts looked up on the correct parts guide for the model being serviced .

 

[jwilkin]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

is the back plate sealed? Can water hert the cable?

 

[Don S]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

No and No

 

[leibin81]

Re: Warning to Volvo Penta owners

I wasn't trying to bad mouth the maker of the boat or the outdrive. I was unaware that the cottering pins are changed multiple times throughout the boats life. In knowing that, I was just hoping to provide people with a little info on something that is very easy to check, but can create a huge problem. I'm sure most on this board are skilled operators of watercraft, but we aren't always the ones behind the wheel. I wish I would have known this could be a potential problem before I learned it the hard way.<br />No disrespect intended, just trying to help. You can debate brass vs. stainless steel pins all you want, the important thing is that they are bent correctly and in good shape.