Running in Neutral

LegacyT

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 7, 2011
Messages
250
I heard you shouldn't run AQ style drives in neutral for very long. Is this true? If so how long can you. Are you able to warm the engine up at the dock?
 

Don S

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
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Aug 31, 2004
Messages
62,321
Re: Running in Neutral

I've never heard that, and I was a Volvo certified tech for a lot of years. Was there a reason given where you heard this?
 

79Merc80

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Nov 22, 2007
Messages
673
Re: Running in Neutral

I heard a while ago that there was one outboard or sterndrive that wasn't suppose to be driven in reverse for long periods of time, but that's all.

Craig
 

Don S

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
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62,321
Re: Running in Neutral

An ebay sales ad is probably not the best place to find accurate operating information for anything.
 

LegacyT

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 7, 2011
Messages
250
Re: Running in Neutral

I figured, just wanted to make sure...
 

billbayliner

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
553
Re: Running in Neutral

Thats what I thought. But then I can across this while browsing volvo parts...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180816584235?item=180816584235&viewitem=&vxp=mtr
He is correct about the single prop drive slinger pump (or Duo Prop lower gear set), but the rest is a misnomer.
When the gear lube is at the correct level and while in neutral, the lower driven gear is bathed in oil and is spinning along with the other two.


He is correct in one aspect, and that would be that the slinger pump (or DP gear set) does pump oil up, and a portion of this oil does end up being pushed through the hollow vertical shaft. That oil then dumps directly onto the upper driven gear bearing. This would give this bearing more lube than what would be brought up by the spinning gears.
But how long would you need to run this with no load in order to cause damage????
If Volvo Penta had a concern, I think that you'd find this in a bulletin.

An ebay sales ad is probably not the best place to find accurate operating information for anything.
Probably so!
 
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