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Thanks for sharing, Rob. I’m about to undertake this project as well.
Was there any reason why you went 5/16″ instead of 3/8″ for the lowers? I was considering bumping up the lowers to 3/8″ but wanted to see if there was any reason not to do this.
Hey Ben + thread,
My RV-20 V-Drive blew up within a year of this thread.
I snagged a crabpot over the summer and it bent the shaft ever so slightly. The yard thinks this contributed to the failure of the bearings inside the V-Drive. I was motoring down from the San Juan Islands two months after the crabpot strike and started to get a terrible vibration. Something internal to the V-drive had failed.
When we took it to a transmission shop, they pulled it apart and noted a dime sized hole of rust inside the case. I wasn’t able to get pictures of the hole. As you can see in the original picture I submitted, there weren’t any obvious signs that something was wrong.
I’d be overly cautious about simply removing the cooling to solve the problem as there may be more damage and wear that’s not apparent. Who knows how long a dribble of salt water was in the oil getting into the gears and bearings…
I replaced the unit with an RV-26. They’re about $3,000 just for the unit and require some modification+alignment to replace the RV-20. Like Rich, I cruise a little bit faster and find that the unit is very warm to the touch.
Good luck!
Hi Bill,
I repowered six months ago with a Yanmar 4JH80. I found Rich’s write-up to be tremendously valuable in planning and executing the project. The new generation Yanmar’s max out at 3,200RPM and I didn’t need to change any of the transmission gear ratios. I believe the Walter V-Drive gear parts are close to $1,000 which you might want to consider changing to the new RV-26 if you needed to re-gear.
The new Yanmar fits the Velvet Drive with an adapter plate. The internal damper plate is much more substantial than the previous Westerbeke/Velvet Drive combo. I would plan on rebuilding your Velvet Drive and replacing the fuel tank while you’re at it.
I re-pitched to a 20×12 (from the original 20×13.) I’m able to hit full RPM and max out around 8.3kts.
If you’re doing it yourself — building a mockup of the engine with all the correct dimensions really helps when you start second guessing yourself if it will all fit. Be sure to plan the alignment between the engine and the Walter V-Drive. There’s a small alignment tool that fits on a key-ring to ensure the input shaft is aligned to your engine. This is one of the details I should have paid more attention to and would have saved me some trouble had I planned for it.
Chuck / Rich,
Appreciate the advice!
Chuck — on your attached image for the mizzen chainplates, are those 1/2″ pins?
Also, wanted to clarify that I’m not drilling the chainplate itself — I’m filling the mounting holes in the fiberglass elbows and re-drilling the fiberglass to match the new chainplate pattern. The new bolts are larger than the previous plates and I’ve ensured the surface has been sanded smooth.
Are you thinking there could be potential voids in the filled sections of the elbow?
Thanks again,
Rob
Awesome, appreciate all of the advice!
I’m slowly replacing all the chain-plates and will eventually do the standing rigging. There’s a great marine parts store around here that carries the Schaefer chain-plates. I’m replacing them one at a time so I don’t have to pull the mast and didn’t want to send off a plate for a template one at a time. The new plates seems a bit beefier. I changed all the bolts to 2 1/2″ long / 1/2″ diameter, added a lock washer to each bolt, and used 316 grade fasteners.
I was surprised how rotten the core was around some of the chain-plate ports and lifeline stanchions. I used a Fein tool to cut out the squares of the life-line stanchions through the deck. I re-bedded using thickened epoxy and backed with two layers of 24oz roven-woving. The original flat-head screws didn’t allow for enough torque to get the nuts off the stanchion bolts!
I also noticed the old plates had an odd bend near the pin — not sure what would have caused them to be out of true.
If you’re in the mood for this project — these are the chain- plates from Schaefer. The marine parts store should be able to get them at half of the listed price. https://hardware.schaefermarine.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=147_125&products_id=3556
Attachments:
ChainPlate-1.jpg
ChainPlate-2.jpg
Old-Chainplate.jpg
DeckRot.jpg
Name: Saudade
Year: 1979
Hull: #65
Power: Yanmar 4JH80 (80hp)
Rig: Ketch
Owner: Rob Osterman
Email: rob.osterman@outlook.com
Hailing Port: Seattle, WA
Berthed: Seattle, WA
Purchased: August 20151 user thanked author for this post.
The new strut came in and it looks fantastic. When I compared it to the old strut, you could really see the bend caused by the line wrap.
The yard is reinstalling the strut today and is adding an additional layer of fiberglass reinforcement over the potting area. We were debating whether to add two additional bolt holes to the strut mount but decided with an external fiberglass reinforcement.
Attachments:
Strut.jpg
You can contact him at baprue@comcast.net or via phone 508-776-3285.
Chuck,
Thanks for the lead – I contacted Buck Algonquin and they recommended I contact Prue Foundry.
I spoke to a very nice man at Prue Foundry who indicated he made a number of original parts for Pearson and that the strut I currently have was most likely made by him. He has all the tooling for the strut and is making a new one for me.
I referred him to the site for an introduction — it seems like Prue is the place to go for replacement struts!
Thanks, Chuck! That’s a scary picture. My strut doesn’t look nearly that bad!
Charlie — that’s a huge bend!!
Good point! It could be that the Yanmar I put in allows for a little more clearance to the strut bolts. Either way, it’s a major pain of a project!
I’m thinking of reinforcing the strut and adding another two bolts. Sorry to hear about your strut endeavor — did you notice any corrosion when you had the strut out?
Hey Alan,
Thanks for the information. Fortunately, the strut isn’t bent — the filler above the strut needs to be re-done and the bolts replaced. I’m going to add an extra zinc to the strut bolts to hopefully slow any further corrosion on the strut.
I was able to pull the strut without pulling the engine. There were no difficulties getting to the strut bolts and pulling it off. Why did you need to remove the engine for your job?
Rob
Bill,
I didn’t have to do any modifications to the transmission itself. There’s an adapter plate my marine transmission shop installed to connect the Yanmar to the Velvet Drive. The adapter, damper plate, and transmission cooler cost around $500.
Is your $35k Volvo quote for the complete installation with labor? My overall project spend including new fuel tank, engine foundation mounts, engine, and all related parts (not including Walter V-Drive rebuild) came close to $30k.
Hi Bill,
I repowered with the latest generation Yanmar 4JH80. I’ve been very happy with the results.
I was pricing out Yanmar’s and Beta’s at the boat show. I was looking at the Beta 75 and found it was much more expensive than the Yanmar options ($17.5k+ just for the engine.) There was a $1,500 difference between the 57HP and the 80HP Yanmar and both were still much cheaper than the 75HP Beta engine.
Rob
