My 1989 Hurth V drive (attached to Universal MV35) has sprung a leak in the rear prop shaft seal. There are no mechanics in the Cayman Islands that are familiar with this unit. I found a seals kit online and downloaded the manual and am considering tackling this myself. The unit needs to be split in half to replace the seals. Has anyone had experience with this issue before? Any thoughts much appreciated.
Tim Austin
Mistofellees. NS33 No32.
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
Hi Tim,
I just repaired my HBW-50 unit. If you have a bearing puller, and bearing splitter, and some common sockets and wrenches, this job about a 6/10 on the difficulty scale.
The transmission comes out relatively easy, as long as you are able to disconnect the prop shaft flange and push back the prop shaft at least 2.5" back away in order to have the input shaft clear the damper plate of the motor.
My advice is to have a spacious clear and clean working area. I read the manual about a dozen times to make sure I understood each step. Once you have the transmission on the bench, slowly dismantle, inspect, and place in some orderly fashion how this unit will go back together. I used a digital camera after each step…a picture is worth a thousand words.
Since you only need to gain access to the V-Drives’ output shaft, then once the case is split in half, that particular shaft will be in your hand in no time. The problem is that the faulty oil seal is the very last item of the entire shaft column. To replace the worn oil seal, you have to remove all the components of that shaft to get to it. ( Of course…it’s the cheap $5 part that usually fails) The opposite end of this shaft has a threaded nut, so you may not need any bearing splitters or pullers, as many of these items should slide off.
But, if you do need pullers, use a good quality puller set and bearing splitter plate,…even better, a bearing press would be better but not everyone has this hanging around in the garage.
Use caution when positioning the bearing splitter plate. It needs to be positioned on the inner race of the bearing, or close to the middle of the gear as possible. I accidentally pulled one bearing by the cage, and destroyed that.
You need the entire seal kit for that unit.
http://www.ebasicpower.com/c/ALLHURTHPARTS/ ALT316803VB
Plus, a small tube of case of oil compatible gasket compound.
I envy you as you only need to replace the oil seal of the “V-Drive output shaft”.. Because our transmission is non V-Drive, the prop pressure eventually wore out the thrust washers, which opened the gap of the clutch and friction plates to burn those out, which eventually losing top speed.. (I think that started when I was being a nice guy and tow a disabled 30ft boat for several hours in rough waters.)
I had to replace all the friction/ clutch plates, and the most important thrust washers.
Wish I was nearby to assist, as I have all the tools and experience to help you. Maybe you could fly me in? lol
Good luck. I’m sure you will have no issues.
Jack Dokter
Nine Lives #099 W21 26C
Penetanguishene, On
This is what makes this list so amazing. Thank you Jack for your help and also others who emailed me directly with their advice. Thank you also for the direct link to the seals kit, although this is now a bit of a mystery as the version I found was closer to US$300 rather than US$34! I am now thinking there must be other items in the one I found (http://www.marinepartssource.com/newdetails.asp?pnumber=H3306199004&mfg=ZF+Hurth&mcat1=5&mcat2=0&mcat3=0&mfgcategory=Gasket+and+Seal+Kits&mfgno=3306199004&desc=Gasket%2FSeal+Kit+%28HBW+150V%29)
Many thanks again.
Tim Austin
Mistoffelees NS22 #32
Cayman Islands