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[Amel Yacht Owners] C-Drive Wearing Bushing and Bow Thruster seal premature failure

Mohammad Shirloo
 

Thanks bill. Yes very helpful. It is much easier to learn from others' experience than try to learn through many mistakes yourself. I like to do everything myself to learn and this groups thoughts and sharing of experience is  always appreciated.

Respectfully;


Mohammad And Aty
luvkante
 

Where do I see the bowthruster-oillevel on my AMEL 54? Never remarked any tank or so!

Martin
AMEL 54 #149 CHIARA


Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 21.12.2016 um 10:39 schrieb mshirloo@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...>:

 

In doing the normal engine room inspection before every departure, I saw the top half of the C-Drive oil container was creamy colored indicating water intrusion. I also noticed that the oil had overflowed the container and had poured on top of the raw water filter cover. Our last sail was a motor sail of about 9 hours at 1500-1700 RPMs. At pre-departure inspection, this condition did not exist. SO it would have happened some time during the last 9 hours of engine use. 


I also found out that the bow thruster oil had completely drained during the 3 months that the boat was in the water from August to November 2016. I filled the bow thruster oil and had not leaked out again, but bow thruster use was minimal and was down for only about 15 minutes.

Both items were serviced in May 2015. The engine has about 350 hours since the time of service and the bow thruster gets used rarely, since we anchor most of the time. My question is if this is if others have seen this timeline of failure, is it normal or poor workmanship that would lead to this type of early failure, despite the recommended 800 hours and 2 years by Amel? 

We are hauling out tomorrow to make repairs, even though our scheduled haul out would have been around May 2017. I want to be sure that the work id done corrfectly so that we get the expected life pof the parts. My understanding was that the 2 years is a conservative and convenient way of doing the replacements during the application of the anti-fouling.

Any thoughts and recommendations would be appreciated.

Mohammad and Aty
B&B Kokomo
Amel 54 #099
Mohammad Shirloo
 

Hello Martin;

There is an oil reservoir under the bow thruster cover in the forward locker. Just remove the cover of the bow thruster by removing the thumb screw and you will see the thruster reservoir. I believe Olivier had commented that the last 54 models had fully sealed reservoirs and therefore I'm assuming no tank to fill. Since you are close to the last models, you may have one of these models.

Respectfully;


Mohammad Shirloo
323-633-2222 Cell
310-454-3148 Fax
luvkante
 

Mohammad Shirloo
 

We are now hauled out and have drained the creamy oil. I would like recommendations on how to best clean the inside of the gear box before adding the new gear oil so that we can remove as much of the water as possible. Would appreciate all thoughts as soon as possible. Thank you
Bill & Judy Rouse <yahoogroups@...>
 

I believe about 2-3 liters of diesel fuel will do the job. Make sure that it all drains out...2 liters in....2 liters out.

Bill Rouse
BeBe Amel 53 #387
Sent from my tablet
+1832-380-4970 USA Voice Mail


On Dec 23, 2016 7:12 AM, "mshirloo@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
 

We are now hauled out and have drained the creamy oil. I would like recommendations on how to best clean the inside of the gear box before adding the new gear oil so that we can remove as much of the water as possible. Would appreciate all thoughts as soon as possible. Thank you
Mohammad Shirloo
 

Thanks bill. Is there a way to unlock the shaft break so we can manually turn the prop from the outside to better clean ?
Stephen Davis
 

We used diesel to flush the Cdrive on a friends boat with the same issue, and it worked well. 

Steve Davis
Aloha SM72
Martinique

On Dec 23, 2016, at 07:17, 'Bill & Judy Rouse' yahoogroups@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

I believe about 2-3 liters of diesel fuel will do the job. Make sure that it all drains out...2 liters in....2 liters out.

Bill Rouse
BeBe Amel 53 #387
Sent from my tablet
+1832-380-4970 USA Voice Mail


On Dec 23, 2016 7:12 AM, "mshirloo@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
 

We are now hauled out and have drained the creamy oil. I would like recommendations on how to best clean the inside of the gear box before adding the new gear oil so that we can remove as much of the water as possible. Would appreciate all thoughts as soon as possible. Thank you
Olaf - RENOS <olaf_renos@...>
 

I had the same (creamy oil) in C-drive and flushed it with diesel. Worked really fine and now everything is ok.

 

 

Olaf Bauer

Santorin#135

 

From: amelyachtowners@... [mailto:amelyachtowners@...]
Sent: 23 December 2016 07:41
To: amelyachtowners@...
Subject: Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] C-Drive Wearing Bushing and Bow Thruster seal premature failure

 

 

We used diesel to flush the Cdrive on a friends boat with the same issue, and it worked well. 

 

Steve Davis

Aloha SM72

Martinique


On Dec 23, 2016, at 07:17, 'Bill & Judy Rouse' yahoogroups@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

I believe about 2-3 liters of diesel fuel will do the job. Make sure that it all drains out...2 liters in....2 liters out.

Bill Rouse
BeBe Amel 53 #387
Sent from my tablet
+1832-380-4970 USA Voice Mail

 

On Dec 23, 2016 7:12 AM, "mshirloo@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

We are now hauled out and have drained the creamy oil. I would like recommendations on how to best clean the inside of the gear box before adding the new gear oil so that we can remove as much of the water as possible. Would appreciate all thoughts as soon as possible. Thank you
Bill & Judy Rouse <yahoogroups@...>
 

Mohammad,

I would not recommend this unless you are sure how the shaft brake works...

The brake is normally ON. The brake is turned OFF by hydraulic pressure from the transmission. The transmission builds hydraulic pressure when the engine is running and opens the calipers from their normal position which is closed tightly against the disk.

There is an adjustment which you could change to open the brake calipers....BUT....when you finish with your cleaning, you will want to be sure to have it correctly adjusted back to where the brake calipers are closed against the disk enough to brake the shaft with the engine OFF....AND....open enough to have no drag on the disk when the motor is running and hydraulic pressure opens the calipers. You will see the adjusting bolt and its locking nut on one end of the brake hydraulic ram.

The calipers need adjusting every 5 years or so. Some brake pads have worn out because they were not adjusted.

Bill Rouse
BeBe Amel 53 #387
Sent from my tablet
+1832-380-4970 USA Voice Mail


On Dec 23, 2016 7:37 AM, "'Mohammad Shirloo' mshirloo@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
 

Thanks bill. Is there a way to unlock the shaft break so we can manually turn the prop from the outside to better clean ?
Craig Briggs
 

Mohammad,
I add diesel to fill up to the sight bowl and then run the engine in gear for a few seconds - obviously, have a helper on the ground to be sure no one gets near the prop. Repeat if necessary until clean. Not having cooling water is not a problem for the short time.  If you want to run it longer, put the engine water intake hose in a bucket being filled with shoreside water - you can then bring the engine up to temp if you also want to do an engine oil change while on the hard.
Craig Briggs, SN#68 Sangaris


---In amelyachtowners@..., <mshirloo@...> wrote :

Thanks bill. Is there a way to unlock the shaft break so we can manually turn the prop from the outside to better clean ?
Mohammad Shirloo
 

Thanks every one for the suggestions. We decided to flush with Diesel 4 times and then with 10 weight oil 4 times just to be sure all the water and the diesel is cleaned up. Decided not to mess with the prop shaft break. I believe we went over board on making sure all the water was evacuated but it is better to be safe than have to haul out again.

We found that the seals where installed incorrectly. They were alternated looking forward, aft and forward rather than 2 forward and one aft as indicated in the AMEL instructions. Also the 0.5 mm spacing was not left between the bushing and the seal which had led to the partial melting of the seal closets to the bushing that led to the water intrusion.

Same lesson as always, do the work yourself or watch it being done and don't allow any "expert"'do work that is not per manufacturers instructions.

Glad to have performed a very important service item with this groups help. Thanks again.

Mohammad and Aty
AMEL 54 #099
B&B Kokomo




Respectfully;


Mohammad Shirloo
323-633-2222 Cell
310-454-3148 Fax
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