My friend is sailing his 1980's Dufour 34 back to the states from Trinidad. The
boat was put up on the hard in great shape, 2 1/2 years ago. After fixing some
misc. problems and running the engine and checking fluids, he departed toward
theBVI's
He sailed for some time with the transmission in nuetral. He then put it in
gear to stop it from turning. He found some oil in in bilge a dripping from the
rear of the transmission and has the following symptoms. The engine and
trasmission work fine, or so it appears, in forward and reverse. Finding
nutreal is very touchy and hard to find. When in nuetreal the engine will not
rev up using the throttle.
It is a vovlo penta MD2B 18 hp engine and has gear reduction and uses motor oil
in the transmission. That is all the info I have. Some may be wrong but the
symptoms are what he has. He says that the leaking of fluid has stopped and
that the dip stick shows the correct amount. Any ideas on what to do? He is in
Tortola and still a long way from Fla.

You don't mention which of the two possible transmitions this volvo has..
The MD2B came with either the MS or the RB type.. The MS will have a small
shift lever on top of the gear case while the RB will have a hulky shift
lever on the side.. Since you mention a dip stick I must assume that this
would be the MS gear..

Since you mentions that nuetral is difficult to find and the engine won't
rev up in neutral, I suspect that internal coupling (#31) between forward
and reverse gears (#15 & #32) is not becoming totally disengaged from both
while in nuetral.. This could be cause by a defect in "the manoevering
mechanism" (shifter) on top of the gear case..

However, most likely, the gear free wheeled or was operated without oil long
enough to gall the coupling (#31). This would require a complete disassembly
and rebuild..

If he doesn't have a manual, there is one on my web site at
http://hood.hctc.com/~esteve/private/manuals/ And he needs a good mechanic
that understand the inter workings of this type of transmision. (this is not
a disk pack type or paragon type). A rebuild will be very expensive, even
here in the US.. It may be cheaper to locate a working used MS transmission
from a Marine Exchange that usually has a couple used MS series in the
back..

Sorry I don't have any better news.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

"Steve" wrote in message
...
If he doesn't have a manual, there is one on my web site at
http://hood.hctc.com/~esteve/private/manuals/ And he needs a good mechanic


I just had a complaint that the Volvo Shop Manual .pdf file wouldn't open..
I haven't been able to figure out what that problem is, but I did put it in
a Zip file and that downloads and unzips fine..

The link to the directory is the same
http://hood.hctc.com/~esteve/private/manuals/

Sorry if anyone had this same problem.. The MD2B shop manual is the most
in-demand of all..

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

I am the original poster of the message, but I have missed the responses due to
work. What did I miss?