Seal on Saildrive leak

[Independence]

Hello:

I am leaking oil from the bell housing connecting the sail drive to
the engine. It is gearbox oil. I am assuming it is the lip seal near
the pinion gear. Has any one changed this out before? It appears I
will have to lift the entire engine out to expose the saildrive pinion
shaft. Not a big deal, but if anyone has gone through the process
and can give me tips it would be helpful. Specifically, did you have
to remove the main pulley to give enough forward movement to slide the
pinion shaft out?

Cheers,

Otis

[Chris Vonderheide]

Otis. I did this 4 months ago. I will tell ya the details soon. Thx chris v

Sent from my iPhone

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Saint Francis Owners Group" group.
> To post to this group, send email to saintf...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to saintfrancis...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/saintfrancis?hl=en.
>

[banana]

Hi Otis,

I had the same problem on my SD50 connected to the 4JH4AE (the Yanmar
54hp), yes it is the lip seal that is dead. If your engine is less
than two years old, Yanmar will take care of the cost and you can use
a mechanical after they agree of course.
The seal is not expensive but you will need a couple of hour to change
it.
You don't have to take the engine out but to slide it in the back
after removing the nuts around the bell. I use the the hook on the top
of the engine and pull from the hatche that is above the engine (on a
st francis50) to make the engine lighter when you slide it.
You need to slide by 25cm (you don't need to disconect anything from
the engine) and then you can remove the schaft that is inside with the
seal around. Check your shaft, mine was worn and was the reason why
the seal was dead.
It sems that also happend when there is to much oil in the sail drive
(Yanmar told me to keep the level at the minimun mark)
The difficult part is to put back the engine just in line for the
shaft to come inside the engine.
I am using now Quicksilver oil, Yanmar agent told me that is was more
efficient.

Hope that can help you

Robert-Louis on Banana

[G P]

Otis,
I have pulled both of my engines when I had them re-built. You will need to be
hauled, this is not an "in-water" repairable thing. The engine will not slide forward
enough to allow you to clear the saildrive splined shaft, pulley or not, with the
saildrive bolted to the hull.

On Obelix, I was able to simply unbolt the motor mounts and saildrive to slide the
engine forward and the saildrive aft enough to clear the splined shaft on the saildrive.
They can be peeled apart in a sort of rotary motion. It is a tight fit, but it is possible.

The saildrive will not pull up and through the hull until you remove the prop and shaft,
no big deal, but it has to be done. Stuff a rag in the opening to keep dirt from blowing
into the saildrive, they are not overly robust. What I mean is that the SD-20 is exactly
rated to handle the max power of a 3GM30 Yanmar diesel, with little margin for error.

I know that Clint on Sanddollar had some issues with the position of the saildrive and
engine, and I believe he wound up having to make some custom motor mount adapters,
so I can't swear that every boat comes apart as easily as Obelix. Yours probably will
though.

You will need to support the aft end of the engine. I found wooden blocks in the bilge
worked well. Incidentally, if you need to pull the entire engine, like I had to, it will fit
through the hatch at the base of the stairs, bellhousing up, with the heat exchanger
removed. I found a block and tackle on the boom to be the ideal lifting system.

The trick, after you fix your oil leak, is to get the system back together. I have found
that a very small hydraulic jaclk, appropriately placed, allows you to adjust the alignment
of the engine and the saildrive. The splined shaft in the saildrive is a close fit, and you need
to be able to manipulate both the positions of the engine and saildrive as well as rotate the
splined shaft (or the engine flywheel) to gain alignment. My best time on this maneuver was
about 45 minutes of fiddleing to get everything to slide together, and that was after figuring
out how to support the engine and slide the saildrive into it. Expect to spend some time
here. I also had to support the saildrive outyside the boat with wooden blocks beneath
the prop end in order to finesse it into the bell housing. You don't need the hydraulic jack
for the power, you need it for the fine position control of the engine that it gives you.

While you can do all this alone, like I did, it is easier if you have two people, one outside to
help with the saildrive and one inside to mate the saildrive to the engine. It just takes
longer if you do it alone.

So there you have it, from someone that has done it. I hope it helps you. Take your time,
document things with pictures (digital pictures work well and can be erased when you are
done), and be persistent. It comes apart and it goes back together, but not without effort.

Pete
S/V Obelix

PS: Don't discount the notion that you may have an oilseal on the crank shaft that has failed,
and not on the saildrive. If you are going to replace the saildrive upper oil seal, I would go
ahead and replace the lower seal too. You have the saildrive out, both seals probably have
the same hours on them, and how much does an oil seal cost anyway? The consequences of
the lower seal failing are more severe than the upper seal.

> Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2011 20:19:59 -0700
> Subject: [Saint Francis OG] Seal on Saildrive leak
> From: sail...@gmail.com
> To: saintf...@googlegroups.com