Volvo Penta Drive Shaft Housing

[oldshore]

I am restoring a 1977 Lancer. Bolted to the flywheel cover is the extended length drive shaft housing, with the Volvo Penta "snout" on it. There is some corrosion of the lip of the snout (the bottom, wide part)and the bearings are seized. Can anyone help me with removing the bearings/shaft? I have removed the inside bearing retaining clip on the front end (engine end).
1) Does the shaft slide out the front (engine) end along with both bearings?
2) Any ideas on getting a replacement housing (scarce as hen's teeth)?
3) How about using a one or two part Volvo housing. This would necessitate moving the 350 SBC 4 or so inches to the stern.

Thanks to all for your help.
Jay

[rgmxk22]

Hi Jay,

I've had to deal with that housing on my 72 CC XK22 with a 350FLV. It's been a few years since I've had to do it, but I recall having to get some snap rings out of the way and one was a pain since it was deep down in a bore of the housing. I didn't have a long nose set of snap ring pliers, so it was interesting removing it.

But once the snap rings were out of the way, I think I had to tap the shaft with a soft hammer to remove it since one or both of the bearings stay in the housing and you can remove them after the shaft is out.

But my memory on this is a little fuzzy, even though I've changed those bearings twice. The best advice is for me to ask if you have a CC parts book that shows the explosion of the shaft and housing. That was how I figured out how things came apart. If you don't have one, I could possibly get a copy of that page to you, what engine do you have in your Lancer?

Now finding a replacement housing is a little tough, but I've seen them a few times on ebay. There are a couple of parts dealers such as Earl (Marine Sales) in Michigan, but that would be more expensive than ebay.
Ron Michael
CC XK22

[oldshore]

I got the first clip out of the snout end, but I am looking for a really deep pair of clip pliers for the deep one. The Sears one is too thick to get between the spline shaft and housing. The snout has some erosion on the bottom (deeper) part of the lip; perhaps 3/8" of aluminum is missing. However, there is still 1/2" of alum. left before the groove that the bellows lip sits in. In addition,I have a broken bolt in the snout end of the housing, which I was told must be removed by electrical discharge machining, which will not damage the threaded steel insert in the housing, or the aluminum housing itself. (All of these holes have threaded steel inserts in them). Now I am looking for somewhere to have this done.

[rgmxk22]

Hi Jay,

That was the trouble I had with the snap ring that is deep in that bore of the snout end, which if I am following you, you're calling the snout end the end that sticks through the transom and the driveshaft bellows goes on.

I have since aquired different sets of snap ring pliers at swapmeets and such. Hopefully I never have to figure out which ones will take that deep ring off. You might check with a local NAPA auto parts store and have a look in their tool catalog. They have a large line of tools and you might find better pliers in their book.

But something tells me that I ended up destroying that deep ring to get it out the first time. I remember buying all new snap rings, seals and bearings the first time I did this project.

If it will eventually help you, I can probably dig up my old invoice from the Volvo parts dealer I went through, it should have all the part numbers for the snap rings and seals. I probably bought the bearings through a local supply house.

I looked at a CC parts book last night after I read you post and I think to get the shaft out you have to first get those snap rings off the snout end. Then take a brass drift/punch and drive the shaft out towards the engine end of the housing. The shaft fits into the engine end bearing, then it should be undercut until it reaches the surface where the rear bearing rides on the shaft. You then line up that rear bearing surface on the shaft, to the front bearing and you should then be able to drive the shaft out of the front bearing.

Next step I think is that you can then remonve the larger snap rings that hold the bearings into the housing. Then you have drive the old bearings out.

I didn't run into the broken bolt problem in my repair, but I can tell you that I had a very good Volvo mechanic tell me not to use the original equipment Volvo bolts that draw your housing and clamping ring over the large O-ring together. The reason was that Volvo used plated steel bolts and he told me that genuine Volvo replacements would be plated steel. He sold me stainless steel bolts instead and so far they have been working fine. But I also used anti-seize compound on the bolt threads where they go into the housing.

I have seen that you can buy threaded inserts in supply catalogs such as MSC or McMaster-Carr. The inserts might let you drill that hole oversize for the insert, but then still have the correct thread on the inside of the insert for the bolt.

Ron Michael

[Episode VI]

I've just completed my own repair of the same sort on my 1971 Lancer with a Buick V6 and Volvo-Penta 250 outdrive. Here's a couple of attached photos. Also, Doug Russel Marine has a great exploded diagram, here's the link:

http://www.dougrussell.com/partscatalog ... ,3466,3507

I pulled the engine on my boat and removed the housing altogether. My bearings were shot (from previous owner)and needed to be replaced (along with transmission). You might want to take your intermediate housing out and bring it to a machinist.

Wilburt Wall at French Creek Marina (315)686-3621 / [email protected] might have an intermediate housing for you to buy. Or, Rick Emery at:

RicardoMarine
AQ series Volvo Penta parts/repair
Portland, Oregon
cell ph 503-789-6171

Ken
[url=http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVzz2qi][img]http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8758/96171655.th.jpg[/img][/url]