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Edit: I think all of the pictures are uploaded and working...
Disclaimer:
I will start off first saying I have no formal training on working on these boats, please take this post as an attempt to "rebuild" my v-drive. While everything is working well I may have missed a critical step along the way. If anyone has any further info or advice I will gladly take it. I was unable to find any posts or documentation on these V-drives, it was really frustrating. Hopefully this can help others out. I would love to find the official specs for bolt torques/preload for this v-drive.
This is not supposed to be a step by step procedure but should be pretty detailed.
My boat: 2018 G23 w/ H6 motor
PCM V-drive part number: RA156014
Transmission model number: 30-04-E01
The problem:
At the end of the 2023 season, my V-drive started to make excessive noise when the boat was in forward gear at idle speeds. As soon as load/rpm was applied all of the noise would go away. The noise sounded like a bent prop or prop shaft. Basically a whomp whomp whomp noise every prop rotation. When winterizing the boat at the end of the season I found metal flake particles in the V-drive oil.
The Plan:
Remove the V-drive and replace any obviously damaged components in an effort to save myself a $3,600 to $5,400.
Removal from Boat
First off, remove the prop from the boat. The prop shaft will need to be removed (later)and I found the easiest way is to remove the floor as it will not fit past the rudder, at least on my boat.
Second, clear the boat out. In my case I ended up removing the floor of the boat. You will need space to work. Remove the back bench from its mounts. It lifts rights out, no tools required.
Then open up the back engine hatches and remove the access panel that is over top of the v-drive/transmission. This gives you a lot of room to work. There are 4/6 coarse thread bolts into the floor and another 4 bolts with nuts behind the trim panel. The trim panel comes off by pulling on it. There are several wiring connectors that need to be unplugged once the panel is ready to come out. Once that piece is out you have access to almost everything you need.
Start by removing the inlet and outlet raw water hose on the v drive. The short section on the starboard side is a real pain.
I then removed the hoes that connect to the raw water strainer and disconnected the wiring that is attached to the bottom side of the floor. It can be found near the starboard side battery.
There is a split ring with Allen headed bolts that is bolted to the prop shaft between the v drive and the shaft seal. You are basically working blind but it's not too hard to remove. It looks like this:
I then put a match mark on the flanges of the V drive and prop shaft. I don’t know if it’s a 100% necessary but I wanted it to go back together the way it came apart so that I did not have to worry about re-aligning the entire v-drive assembly to the prop shaft.
Then I would remove the four main bolts that hold the prop shaft to the v-drive..
Remove the 10 Phillips head bolts that hold the floor down. You will need a friend to help you lift the floor out of the boat. It's a two person job at least. I would not take the floor all the way out of the boat though. It's much easier to put back the floor back in to actually work on the rest of the v-drive. You should then be able to slide the prop shaft up and out of the v drive. Be careful with the prop shaft. Don’t ding or scratch it when moving it around. I would suggest you take it completely out of the boat and put it someplace safe.
Note: There is no reason to remove the main shaft nut that hold the shaft flange to the shaft itself. It's on there with a pretty heavy torque. Just take the floor out…
I told you not to go too far with the floor because it's time for you to put it back in place. No need to bolt it back in yet though.
Now back to the V drive itself. There are 8 nuts that hold the v drive to the transmission. They are an absolute pain to remove. The V-drive casting does not give you enough room to get a box end wrench or a socket on the nuts. You have very little room to swing the wrench and you have to use the open end.
Next I would loosen, but not remove, the 4 main bolts holding the v-drive to it hull mounts.
Next find something to help support the weight of the v drive. It's not THAT heavy but you don’t want to drop it in the bilge and it will require some rocking to get it out. I used some straps and an electric come-along mounted to the tower to support the drive. This was a bit overkill but it worked. A nice ratchet strap would probably work as well. There is a lifting eyelet built into the top of the drive to help out with this.
Once the weight is supported you can then remove the mounting bolts and lift the v-drive out.
This whole process took my brother and myself about 4 hours. We were very slow and deliberate about labeling all of the bolts, taking pictures, and most importantly, trying to keep the seats from getting damaged and keeping the boat clean. It is not hard to do but it does take some patience and some mechanical aptitude.
Putting the drive back in is basically the same thing in reverse. Just make sure to verify the shaft alignment. There are plenty of procedures and videos online showing that.
No onto the V-drive itself:
This section will be less of a step-by-step and more of me talking about what I found and what I replaced. This is where it would be nice to have official documentation on assembling these drives. It took me some time to piece together information about these V-drives. I couldn’t find many people who were eager to work on them, and almost no info about replacement parts/procedures. For instance these are velvet drive made products but I could only find Pleasure Craft Marine(PCM) part numbers for any of the parts. I am also really disappointed in the paint on these V drives. My boat isn’t that old. It should not be rusting on the outside of the case…
The "serial number" on my V-drive also seems like it's way too low. 397. Maybe this was already replaced once by the previous owner? Sorry rambling.
The drive is pretty simple. An input shaft and an output shaft, a few seals, 5 bearings, and 2 gears.
I removed my blue winterizing plug to make sure I didn't snap it off. I removed the flange that connects the output shaft to the drive to gain access to the main bearing seat.
Then removed the next set of bolts holding the bearing carrier onto the housing. Don't worry about removing it after the bolts come out though.
Then you can remove the bolts that hold the case halves together and split the case. There is a paper gasket between the two halves. The replacement part number is PCM RM0289.
After I got the case apart it was really obvious what the failure mode was… The main bearing that takes up most of the output shaft load. Many of the rollers had chunked out and was on its way to a major failure.
Luckily it appears all of the bearings in the case have their standard codes still marked on them, even if the bearing OEM names are not present. In this case it is an: 33013 taper roller bearing. I bought a nice Timken version from a bearing supplier and swapped it out. No need to get a PCM specific bearing. The outer race for this bearing just slid out of the housing by hand.
I was also able to find a new seal kit for these v-drives to replace the o-ring in the bearing seat and seals on the input and output shafts. Part number: PCM RK173095
I did not replace any other bearings. I flushed all of the other bearings and made sure to clean the inside of the case. This may come back to haunt me but it would have required me to drive all of the out races from their bearing seats. If anyone else knows the bearing numbers I will gladly fill in the info in this post.
For reference here are a few shots of the inside of the case :
When reassembling the case I would make sure you use the PCM specific case gasket. It appears that all of the bearing preload for the input shaft is entirely dependent on the gasket thickness in the case. This seems crazy to me but apparently it works. I was also very careful to make sure all mounting surfaces were stoned to make sure no burs were present when reassembling this case. We have to make sure to maintain the preload and alignment of the shafts to guarantee life of the gear set/bearings and alignment when the drive goes back into the boat.
I was also able to find documentation from PCM for an older model V-drive that stated their M8 bolts are supposed to be stepped torqued. First at 10 ft-lbs and then at 16 ft-lbs. I used these torques to put this case back together.
https://pcmengines.jp/index/img/part...ice-Manual.pdf
I also used blue Loctite on the bearing carrier bolts. It looked like it was on there when I removed the bolts in the first place. I also replaced any rusting bolts with new ones.
So for final reference:
• Bearing replaced
33013
• Case Gasket:
PCM RM0289
• Whole Seal kit:
PCM RK173095
• Bearing cap bolts
M8-1.25 x20
• Case bolts
M8-1.25x25
• V drive oil
https://marinepartssource.com/transm...marine-r190251
I hope this helps someone in the future. It is certainly close to what I was looking for. This ended up saving my over $3,000 (unless something grenades lol). I have about 25 hours on the boat since I changed the bearings out and everything is looking good and functioning well.
Disclaimer:
I will start off first saying I have no formal training on working on these boats, please take this post as an attempt to "rebuild" my v-drive. While everything is working well I may have missed a critical step along the way. If anyone has any further info or advice I will gladly take it. I was unable to find any posts or documentation on these V-drives, it was really frustrating. Hopefully this can help others out. I would love to find the official specs for bolt torques/preload for this v-drive.
This is not supposed to be a step by step procedure but should be pretty detailed.
My boat: 2018 G23 w/ H6 motor
PCM V-drive part number: RA156014
Transmission model number: 30-04-E01
The problem:
At the end of the 2023 season, my V-drive started to make excessive noise when the boat was in forward gear at idle speeds. As soon as load/rpm was applied all of the noise would go away. The noise sounded like a bent prop or prop shaft. Basically a whomp whomp whomp noise every prop rotation. When winterizing the boat at the end of the season I found metal flake particles in the V-drive oil.
The Plan:
Remove the V-drive and replace any obviously damaged components in an effort to save myself a $3,600 to $5,400.
Removal from Boat
First off, remove the prop from the boat. The prop shaft will need to be removed (later)and I found the easiest way is to remove the floor as it will not fit past the rudder, at least on my boat.
Second, clear the boat out. In my case I ended up removing the floor of the boat. You will need space to work. Remove the back bench from its mounts. It lifts rights out, no tools required.
Then open up the back engine hatches and remove the access panel that is over top of the v-drive/transmission. This gives you a lot of room to work. There are 4/6 coarse thread bolts into the floor and another 4 bolts with nuts behind the trim panel. The trim panel comes off by pulling on it. There are several wiring connectors that need to be unplugged once the panel is ready to come out. Once that piece is out you have access to almost everything you need.
Start by removing the inlet and outlet raw water hose on the v drive. The short section on the starboard side is a real pain.
I then removed the hoes that connect to the raw water strainer and disconnected the wiring that is attached to the bottom side of the floor. It can be found near the starboard side battery.
There is a split ring with Allen headed bolts that is bolted to the prop shaft between the v drive and the shaft seal. You are basically working blind but it's not too hard to remove. It looks like this:
I then put a match mark on the flanges of the V drive and prop shaft. I don’t know if it’s a 100% necessary but I wanted it to go back together the way it came apart so that I did not have to worry about re-aligning the entire v-drive assembly to the prop shaft.
Then I would remove the four main bolts that hold the prop shaft to the v-drive..
Remove the 10 Phillips head bolts that hold the floor down. You will need a friend to help you lift the floor out of the boat. It's a two person job at least. I would not take the floor all the way out of the boat though. It's much easier to put back the floor back in to actually work on the rest of the v-drive. You should then be able to slide the prop shaft up and out of the v drive. Be careful with the prop shaft. Don’t ding or scratch it when moving it around. I would suggest you take it completely out of the boat and put it someplace safe.
Note: There is no reason to remove the main shaft nut that hold the shaft flange to the shaft itself. It's on there with a pretty heavy torque. Just take the floor out…
I told you not to go too far with the floor because it's time for you to put it back in place. No need to bolt it back in yet though.
Now back to the V drive itself. There are 8 nuts that hold the v drive to the transmission. They are an absolute pain to remove. The V-drive casting does not give you enough room to get a box end wrench or a socket on the nuts. You have very little room to swing the wrench and you have to use the open end.
Next I would loosen, but not remove, the 4 main bolts holding the v-drive to it hull mounts.
Next find something to help support the weight of the v drive. It's not THAT heavy but you don’t want to drop it in the bilge and it will require some rocking to get it out. I used some straps and an electric come-along mounted to the tower to support the drive. This was a bit overkill but it worked. A nice ratchet strap would probably work as well. There is a lifting eyelet built into the top of the drive to help out with this.
Once the weight is supported you can then remove the mounting bolts and lift the v-drive out.
This whole process took my brother and myself about 4 hours. We were very slow and deliberate about labeling all of the bolts, taking pictures, and most importantly, trying to keep the seats from getting damaged and keeping the boat clean. It is not hard to do but it does take some patience and some mechanical aptitude.
Putting the drive back in is basically the same thing in reverse. Just make sure to verify the shaft alignment. There are plenty of procedures and videos online showing that.
No onto the V-drive itself:
This section will be less of a step-by-step and more of me talking about what I found and what I replaced. This is where it would be nice to have official documentation on assembling these drives. It took me some time to piece together information about these V-drives. I couldn’t find many people who were eager to work on them, and almost no info about replacement parts/procedures. For instance these are velvet drive made products but I could only find Pleasure Craft Marine(PCM) part numbers for any of the parts. I am also really disappointed in the paint on these V drives. My boat isn’t that old. It should not be rusting on the outside of the case…
The "serial number" on my V-drive also seems like it's way too low. 397. Maybe this was already replaced once by the previous owner? Sorry rambling.
The drive is pretty simple. An input shaft and an output shaft, a few seals, 5 bearings, and 2 gears.
I removed my blue winterizing plug to make sure I didn't snap it off. I removed the flange that connects the output shaft to the drive to gain access to the main bearing seat.
Then removed the next set of bolts holding the bearing carrier onto the housing. Don't worry about removing it after the bolts come out though.
Then you can remove the bolts that hold the case halves together and split the case. There is a paper gasket between the two halves. The replacement part number is PCM RM0289.
After I got the case apart it was really obvious what the failure mode was… The main bearing that takes up most of the output shaft load. Many of the rollers had chunked out and was on its way to a major failure.
Luckily it appears all of the bearings in the case have their standard codes still marked on them, even if the bearing OEM names are not present. In this case it is an: 33013 taper roller bearing. I bought a nice Timken version from a bearing supplier and swapped it out. No need to get a PCM specific bearing. The outer race for this bearing just slid out of the housing by hand.
I was also able to find a new seal kit for these v-drives to replace the o-ring in the bearing seat and seals on the input and output shafts. Part number: PCM RK173095
I did not replace any other bearings. I flushed all of the other bearings and made sure to clean the inside of the case. This may come back to haunt me but it would have required me to drive all of the out races from their bearing seats. If anyone else knows the bearing numbers I will gladly fill in the info in this post.
For reference here are a few shots of the inside of the case :
When reassembling the case I would make sure you use the PCM specific case gasket. It appears that all of the bearing preload for the input shaft is entirely dependent on the gasket thickness in the case. This seems crazy to me but apparently it works. I was also very careful to make sure all mounting surfaces were stoned to make sure no burs were present when reassembling this case. We have to make sure to maintain the preload and alignment of the shafts to guarantee life of the gear set/bearings and alignment when the drive goes back into the boat.
I was also able to find documentation from PCM for an older model V-drive that stated their M8 bolts are supposed to be stepped torqued. First at 10 ft-lbs and then at 16 ft-lbs. I used these torques to put this case back together.
https://pcmengines.jp/index/img/part...ice-Manual.pdf
I also used blue Loctite on the bearing carrier bolts. It looked like it was on there when I removed the bolts in the first place. I also replaced any rusting bolts with new ones.
So for final reference:
• Bearing replaced
33013
• Case Gasket:
PCM RM0289
• Whole Seal kit:
PCM RK173095
• Bearing cap bolts
M8-1.25 x20
• Case bolts
M8-1.25x25
• V drive oil
https://marinepartssource.com/transm...marine-r190251
I hope this helps someone in the future. It is certainly close to what I was looking for. This ended up saving my over $3,000 (unless something grenades lol). I have about 25 hours on the boat since I changed the bearings out and everything is looking good and functioning well.
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