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1986 290 sp drive black oil and grit when drained, help needed.

D

dazk14

Contributing Member
Hi, 1986 Volvo Aq 151 with 290 single prop drive.

I drained the outdrive lube and it was black and smelly. Leakdown test was perfect(as expected).

I know black usually means worn and gear issues so I sieved the drained oil through a coffee filter. Some grit was found and two small metal chips about a 1/3 the size of a small mouse dropping.

Am I correct that the drive is on the way out?

What typically croaks when running and can you generally make it back in.

I am working on finding a reasonably priced used drive.

In the meantime I'd like to nurse my existing drive along for a little bit. It's not making any obvious noises. It is currently LH rotation.

I have a RH prop and thought of switching it to RH rotation to use different gears(not sure how many are involved), but is some is better than none?

Any help would be appreciated,
Mike D.
 
Re: 290 sp drive black oil and grit when drained, help needed.

Mike,

How long was oil in drive?

Used much?

I would take off the shift cover and observe gears and shift cone for overheating or blueing.

If none evident, try putting some new oil in drive and running it for an hour.

Check oil again for darkening/ particles etc..

John
 
Re: 290 sp drive black oil and grit when drained, help needed.

Sounds like it could have been a factory oil change. I would change the oil run it for a day and then see what the oil looks like. Remember those outdrives use engine oil, not gear oil. I use 30W in mine.

Have a great day

Rob
 
Re: 290 sp drive black oil and grit when drained, help needed.

Mike.... don't jump the gun here..... not yet!
These rarely wear out behind the OHC 4.
While the oil color you describe is not good.... could be discolored oil from water that has rusted some internal parts.... of which is still not good.
But, even some V-8's have a tough time wearing these out.
I deliberately keep a badly worn 280 from a V-8 Powered 28 footer here, to show people just how badly worn these can be, yet continue working.
The owner did not even know his drive was in need of repair.

Pull the transmission from the Intermediate housing and inspect the lower driven gear bearing!
Pull the shift mechanism, and peek inside.
Then remove the prop shaft bearing carrier and take a look at the gears/bearings.

(The bearing set that would cause you immediate failure (if real bad) would be the transmission main drive gear bearing set)

Trust me...... you'd need to have some pretty severely damaged parts for one of these to fail quickly and without warning!


Bad news: All uppers are same ratio and will interchange..... they do bring some good $$$! So you can expect to pay a little bit for a good transmision.

Good news: The 4 cylinder 2.15:1 lower units are very tough to sell. They rarely wear out. They don't bring any money! You can pick one up cheaply.
 
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