Problems with volvo 270 outdrive

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Clint Eastwood

Cadet
Joined
Apr 18, 2012
Messages
20
Hi Everyone
This is my first post on iboats. And this is my first boat ive owned. Ive just done my skippers ticket a few weeks ago and have been and bought my first boat. Its a 21ft Pride Sea Raider. It has the volvo Penta aq170 and volvo 270 leg. The boat was owned by a guy for over 10 years and only went in the water on two occasions. First occasion ended up on a sand bank in the swan river over 7 years ago and second was out of Lancelin which was apparently to rough so the boat was brought back and parked up again in the garage where i believe its spent most of the last 10 years. The engine was given a freshen up 2 years ago and starts on the button. everything seems to work ok but as a mechanic and a total newbie when it comes to boating i thought i would learn as much about the drive setup on this boat. Also dont want to be at sea and find out that somthing isnt working.
I started to check over things and noticed that the engine wouldnt draw water up from the leg with ear muffs attatched. So i put a large plastic bin underneath and filled it with water and got pretty good flow(after bypassing the strainer which was rotted out)ive checked the rubber impellor on raw water pump and it is good. When running at idle only a small amount comes out of the hole in transom and most out of exhaust, give it a few revs and it comes out of the hole in transom very quickly. The temp however on idle does start to rise slowly indicating poor circulation or maybe even a bad thermostat.ive tried putting water pressure back down the leg with vents taped up and i get water leaking from the top steering joint just below the water intake nipple, i reckon the seals are gone. I also have a lot of movement at the bottom steering joint from side to side and up and down.
The tilt and trim works good going up and down very well but if you press down on the leg when up it gos down pretty easy.
My questions are:
Will i need to strip the whole leg to replace seals and bushing?
Can i tighten something on the worm drive for the tilt mechanism to increase resistance?
Sorry for the long post but wanted to give as much info as possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Clint:)
 
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captmello

Captain
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
3,855
Re: Problems with volvo 270 outdrive

I would go ahead and change the impeller. Just cause it looks good doesn't mean it is.

Reasealing the pivot tube seals and bushings is not too difficult, but it requires pulling the entire outdrive and stripping the intermediate assembly completely.

Since the boat has been sitting so long, I would start by pulling the upper gear box and inspecting the ujoints. While the upper is off, you could replace the gasket under the water intake fitting as well as the fitting itself, and perhaps help your leakage in that area. However, you may still need to go back and replace all seals and bushings as mentioned earlier.

This link tells how to remove the upper gear box.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=309095

You can go here and download manuals for you motor and outdrive, thanks to Don S for the links.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=2360521#post2360521

The tilt sounds like it is working properly. It is supposed to go down with pressure. It is not a power trim system, just a tilt for use when taking the boat out of the water or for tilting up in shallow water, only at Idle speed however. Do not try to reverse with the tilt up.

Welcome to iboats, btw.
 
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Clint Eastwood

Cadet
Joined
Apr 18, 2012
Messages
20
Re: Problems with volvo 270 outdrive

Thanks very much for reply, ive ordered a kit to replace bushes and seals on the leg, i have a spare new rubber impellor which i found in the boat which i plan on fitting. Will update once shes in the water and running

Regards

Clint
 
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billbayliner

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
553
Re: Problems with volvo 270 outdrive

Captmello pretty much covers it.
If the upper pivot tube bushing is bad, the water neck beaded gasket will not seal properly. It will at first, but will eventually start loosing seal. So pulling the whole drive makes sense when it's this old.

If you can tighten the top aluminum housing on the tilt unit, it should increase spring pressure. But like Captmello said, it's suppose to allow the drive to go full in when pushed down.

btw, when using the muffs, put a plug in the water drain hole on the lower unit.
 
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PiratePast40

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
1,734
Re: Problems with volvo 270 outdrive

Just my opinion, but I'd be inclined to pressure test the outdrive prior to disassembly so you can check the other seals. Pressure testing is part of the reassembly procedure but with an outdrive that old, it would be good to know about seals such as the gearbox forward seal and the shift shoe seal the first time around instead of having to reorder parts and take down the gearbox again.
 
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Clint Eastwood

Cadet
Joined
Apr 18, 2012
Messages
20
Re: Problems with volvo 270 outdrive

what type of temp sender should be in this motor, the sendor is brand new as if its been changed lately
 
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Clint Eastwood

Cadet
Joined
Apr 18, 2012
Messages
20
Re: Problems with volvo 270 outdrive

fitted a mechanical temp gauge today which has temp readings in c and f. When running engine up to temp the gauge fitted to boat runs into red. the new gauge i fitted only reads just over 40 degrees c. wrong sender.
 
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Tommywalton

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 23, 2010
Messages
170
Re: Problems with volvo 270 outdrive

I had a aq225/275 with similar issues. Fried one engine to the point the block cracked. Obviously easy to do when your 80' behind the boat on a wakeboard and someone else is driving. My problem was a totally worn out drive system. The pivot points, bushings and pins were shot on everything. After spending much coin to replace everything you just mentioned and more i could never get it to seal. It would only suck air into cooling system "on plane".

May i make a suggestion? Once you get all your parts replaced and head for the water go get yourself a piece of clear hose. A short piece will work. You should install it from the t-stat housing to the riser inlet. I think it is 3/4 hose i cant remember. 18" length worked for me. This is only tempory while you run your boat to test. Watch this hose carefully. At first you may see some air bubbles traveling through it. This was normal for mine. This should clear up very soon if your system is not sucking air. If you see air bubbles constantly point it back to the ramp. It doesn't take a lot of air bubbles to create void up high internally in yout engine and seriously effect your cooling system.

Ultimatly i bypassed my entire drive and fabbed myself a clamshell type raw water inlet through my hull. No more problems. My case is extreme im sure and hopefully yours wont be this way.
 
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