DP-C1 driveshaft bearing ?'s

[snyyyper]

I have a '94 5.7 gi volvo-penta with the old DP-C1 outdrive....it's based on the aquamatic 290, I'm told. Well I took the boat out for the first trip of the season and I noticed a whooshing almost growling sound coming from the back of the boat. seemed to get a little worse when I turned, and I was able to get it to stop for a couple of seconds at a time by raising/lowering the trim. took the boat out of the water and noticed the d-shaft bellows was cracked and leaking. people are telling me that what I describe does not sound like u-joints, but from what I can tell in my service manual, there is no gimbal bearing on this outdrive...the d-shaft appears to be supported by a bearing in the upper gearcase which is behind a seal and runs in gear lube. checked the gear lube and it is clean and free from water. is there a d-shaft bearing on the engine end that is not a gimbal bearing? and if so, can it be changed w/o removing the engine? or is this noise likely coming from the u-joints? also, my repair manual describes removing only the upper gearcase to service the u-joints, but it looks to me like it would be easier just to remove the entire outdrive (because of the problem of sealing the upper/intermediate gearcases back together). any thoughts are greatly appreciated. sorry for the long post, but wanted to include all pertinant info.

 

[Don S]

Re: DP-C1 driveshaft bearing ?'s

You are correct, there is no "Gimbal" bearing. Sounds like the noise is ujoints due to water in the bellows. <br />You need to only remove the upper gear box to replace the bellows and access the ujoints. It's much easier to do than it looks, and is a lot easier than removing the complete drive.<br />There is a seal in the back of the engine bellhousing that may have kept the water out of the intermediate bearings (That's what we call the bearings in the bellhousing).<br />You should be able to remove the old seal and check the grease for any water. If there is water in the bearings, they will probably get rusty and start making noise also. You need to remove the engine to replace those bearings.<br />Also check your drive for water. Don't just check the dipstick, the GL5 synthetic seperates and water settles to the bottom of the drive. It will get into the drive very easily, the seal was not designed to keep water out, that was the job of the bellows.<br />The seal ring the seal rides on gets rusty and grinds the seal away and causes leaks also.

 

[snyyyper]

Re: DP-C1 driveshaft bearing ?'s

Thanks for the help, Don. I will pull the upper tomorrow and see what's what. I did pull back the bellows enough to see that the caps on the joint closest to the upper gearcase seem to be obstructed by the gearcase housing. will I be able to change those joints w/o removing that shaft from the gearcase?

 

[Don S]

Re: DP-C1 driveshaft bearing ?'s

It will just clear the housing, but like I said, if that seal ring gets rusty it grinds the shaft seal away any you have an oil leak that could cost you a drive. In order to replace the seal the ujoint assembly has to be removed.