Outdrive leak down - advice and clarrification on SB

[mickms]

Hello - I am looking at getting boat with a 1997 Volvo Penta 4.3 Cobra engine. The owner read me off the serial numbers... upper: 4110146022, lower: 4112033852.

This boat was stored for 2 years with the drive down. During that time it developed the leak down problem as described in the FAQ bulletin (very helpful, thanks!) However, I don't understand the part about it applying to SX, DP-S drives with shield designation SX-M. I can't get at the boat to look, but the owner says it's and SX.

The quote I got from my mechanic to replace the pump (which was his recommendation) was over $800 with tax. Would the fix in the service bulletin apply to my drive... and do you think it will work given that the thing is now 14 years old? Two mechanics around here basically said the likelihood of being able to rebuild this trim pump are pretty low.

As a practical matter, the drive leaks down very slowly, and it can't be budged by hand. It didn't cavitate at all during the sea test. If I ignore the condition, is it likely to lead to other problems, or could I put off the pump replacement for a few seasons until it finally fails?

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Don S]

Re: Outdrive leak down - advice and clarrification on SB 44-5-2A

Re: Outdrive leak down - advice and clarrification on SB 44-5-2A

Nope, that bulletin has nothing to do with the boat you are looking at, it has a completely different type pump. You are looking at a SX-C series drive, the M came later.

As a practical matter, the drive leaks down very slowly, and it can't be budged by hand. It didn't cavitate at all during the sea test. If I ignore the condition, is it likely to lead to other problems, or could I put off the pump replacement for a few seasons until it finally fails?

The drive won't cavitate, what will happen is the trim will not stay where you set it and you will have to constantly trim the drive up as it pushes down when running.
How long it will last doing that, who knows, 1 trip or 3 years, never was good at predicting the future of already failing parts.

PS: the full model number is 4.3GLPLKD, with an SX (not Cobra) outdrive, and it's all Volvo and nothing is OMC.

 

[wellcraft19]

Re: Outdrive leak down - advice and clarrification on SB 44-5-2A

Re: Outdrive leak down - advice and clarrification on SB 44-5-2A

See if you can figure out if the leak is in the pump (can be dirt preventing the valves from closing and fixed by a cleaning, or in worst case, a new pump, not that expensive), or if the hydraulic trim cylinders are leaking. Expensive.
If the cylinders are leaking, apart from polluting the waterways, also a fair chance you will actually take on water into the system and really mess it up (=$$$).

You can buy trim pumps off iboats.com, eBay and many, many other sources. I think they run about $300 on eBay.

 

[mickms]

Re: Outdrive leak down - advice and clarrification on SB

All indication are that it's the pump. I had a mechanic check the boat and he said there was no sign of fluid leaking from the lines or the cylinders.

So I went through the part finder on iboats, looked up the p/n, and then did some shopping. To my surprise, there are two different pumps with a $100 difference in price that both say they would work for the p/n 3587079.

First One

Second one

I don't get it? Does anyone know if either of these will work on my outdrive??? What's the difference?

 

[Don S]

Re: Outdrive leak down - advice and clarrification on SB

You are looking at the wrong type pump in your first link, not sure about the second, I don't know what each part number looks like. Here is the pump that should be on it, http://www.volvopentastore.com/Powe...*****.693165424--store_id.366--view_id.779331