Sail drive gator replacement

All done .  They had to take the engine a little more forward than expected (about 30 cm)  in order to take the SD  out from the cabin because the engine room is quite tight. They took it  to the shop and did the job  before reinstallling. The seals looked good but.. better be safe than sorry! 

By the way, the SD anode did his job too and needed to be replaced after about 1 year and a half.

I am in the process of changing the gator/ diaphragm on my newly aquired 2008. The gator have never been changed before, so 14+ years. (SD20 Sail drive) 

I will offer my thoughts and observations, any comments will be welcomed.

I actually found the gator to be leaking tiny amounts / tiny seepage.

This was not noticed before dismantling, as i bought the boat 5 days before putting it on the shore for the winter.

First inkling I got was when I found 3 of the bolts, clamping the gator to the hull, to have the holes  choked with salt. After dismantling the sail drive and cleaning the gator I found that there are a tiny lip on the underside, presumably to ensure seal against the hull. This lip has become hard and "glassy" in patches. (Easy to detect, run your finger over the rubber, and you feel the normal "rubber friction", as soon as you run the finger over the hard patch, it feels much slicker.)

Other than that, it seemed in "new" condition.

I also find that Hanse has done several variants regarding the engine compartment. Above the engine I have a upside-down "T", where the seawater intake filter and engine coolant expansion tank are located. This "T" has to be removed, it is secured with 2 screws and glue on each side, careful not to damage insulation.

Further, both the cabin and bathroom doors had to be removed, as they cover the hatches. I also loosened the insulation tape behind the bolts for the stairs to access to the nuts, and removed the stairs completely.

On my boat, the exhaust silencer is placed on the port side of the gearbox, and it had to be removed to gain access to the bolts holding the saildrive. It is also blocking access to the upper zinc anode in the gear box, which should be replaced annually according to the manual. I cleaned the anode with vinegar (concentrated) and checked the weight as per the manual, it is 200grams new and to be replaced at 140 grams. Mine is 14 years and 182 grams, and going back in. I will not bother to check it in 2-3 years. (Of course the wear rate will vary with use and salinity etc, but I should be safe for 3 years)

After removing all bolts holding the engine to the gearbox, as well as the bolts securing the engine mounts to the hull, I placed wooden blocks and shims in front of the engine bed, and slid the engine forward by hand, no more than 30-40 kg of force needed. NOTE: I also had a stack of shims in the rear, to prevent the engine from tilting down. This will also make assembly easier (I hope)

Update:

I tried to upload some pictures, but got error...

It turns out Yanmar (at least according to my local dealer) has had trouble with the paint on the sail drives. On my drive the paint had only partly adhesion to the metal, and corrosion had started, worst around bolt holes.

Stripped the drive for all old antifouling and bad paint, 3 coats of etching primer NOTE! do not skip this, as the alloy could actually get accelerated corrosion with a bad coating. 3 coats of Volvo Penta drive repair paint (dealer out of Yanmar version) and 3 coats of vinyl primer.

Engine mounts; aft and port engine mount defect. To change the port one, I used a ratchet strap over the boom to lift the engine. Used a 2x4 upright to support boom. The ratchet strap were also used to align the engine and gearbox, as the shims in the rear of the engine were a disappointment.

To get the engine to fit to the gear box 2 persons are minimum (3 better) as one has to be under the boat turning the propeller shaft to align splines to the fly wheel.  

I will post an update on my initial post, with some pictures.