outdrive problems on a 1985 2555 ciera-gctid367306

[Guest]

Try to make this short........out drive hydraulics are shot from what marina owner tells me. It's a single screw so I have enough trouble trying to dock it in our slip as we are on a good size lake and closest to shore, without the drive coming up in reverse. He said it could be up to 3000 to fix and not sure we will keep it that long. He suggested that even though it might sound nutty, that I might consider tying it down with a cable to a fixed down position.

Any thoughts or experience with doing this? Any help here would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest]

In 1985 Bayliner was using Volvo Penta 280 stern drives on Ciera models. There are no hydraulics on these drives. The stern drive is lifted by an electric motor and the stern drive is locked in the down position with a clamp that drops over the tilt pin they used on these drives. DO NOT cable the drive down. This is poor advice. In the event you strike something under water the drive must be free to kick up or if can damage the boat's transom.

What model stern drive package is in your Ciera?

[Guest]

There is a thread here that explains the reverse lock. Im on my phone so i cant post it for you, try doing a search. I have to replace a few parts on mine this year do to the same problem you are having. They are expensive but no where near 3 grand. The two hooks that hold the drive down wear out. They are about 85.00 a piece. Also make sure everything is clean and moves free. The push rod gets nasty and will bind up not allowing it to lock properly. Its a pretty easy fix imo. If you take a look at how the hole thing works you will be able to tell right away what the problem is.

[2850Bounty]

I created this thread in the BOC Vault for this purpose.

Take a look, see if you can find your answer there.

If not, post back with a specific question or two.

.

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sebring_1 wrote:
Try to make this short........out drive hydraulics are shot from what marina owner tells me. It's a single screw so I have enough trouble trying to dock it in our slip as we are on a good size lake and closest to shore, without the drive coming up in reverse. He said it could be up to 3000 to fix and not sure we will keep it that long. He suggested that even though it might sound nutty, that I might consider tying it down with a cable to a fixed down position.

Any thoughts or experience with doing this? Any help here would be greatly appreciated!

My advice is to listen very carefully to Rick's advice, do a little bit of research on that thread, and find out if you do in fact have a Volvo 280 (or at least grab a pic of the back of the boat so we can help you).

Finally, fire that no-talent @$$ clown of a mechanic and find someone who understands what a Volvo tilt lock mechanism is.

[Guest]

You guys are awesome, will do some looking into it when I go down this weekend. I will take all the pics that I can. This is our first boat, and we bought it used from a friend so I can tell you, though mechanically inclined for the most part, I know absolutely nothing about boats.

What does puzzle me though, is that I have a dash switch (not the one that works the tabs) but one that does or is supposed to work the drive. When the marina owner looked at it last summer, he mentioned something about cannisters in this drive, that are aluminum, and when they begin to wear out, they leak and that is when they have to be replaced so................

Don't know him but all the others on our dock seem to trust in his shop (he owns the marina as well as their own repair shop)

Will let you know what I find out.................thanks for all of your insight!

[2850Bounty]

You've mentioned cylinders several times. Is this by chance the 280 PT drive????

See if you can identify your drive on this drive finder chart.

Right Click on the image and capture the URL and image tag it ( [img[ [/img] ), and post it in your thread.

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sebring_1 wrote:
You guys are awesome, will do some looking into it when I go down this weekend. I will take all the pics that I can. This is our first boat, and we bought it used from a friend so I can tell you, though mechanically inclined for the most part, I know absolutely nothing about boats.

What does puzzle me though, is that I have a dash switch (not the one that works the tabs) but one that does or is supposed to work the drive. When the marina owner looked at it last summer, he mentioned something about cannisters in this drive, that are aluminum, and when they begin to wear out, they leak and that is when they have to be replaced so................

Don't know him but all the others on our dock seem to trust in his shop (he owns the marina as well as their own repair shop)

Will let you know what I find out.................thanks for all of your insight!

On the 2550, the tilt switch is to the left of the steering wheel. If its a standard 280, there will be a small red LED light that illuminates when you toggle the switch up.

Rick, it MIGHT be a 280PT, but I have NEVER seen one on a 2550...and you know how much (and how many!) 2550s I have looked at.

It COULD be a 290, as I have seen ONE (as in a single, solitary boat) that had a 290 and was a 1985 model. EVERY other '85 I ever saw was a tilt-lock 280.

Sebring - Grab a pic of the transom shield of your boat...which is to say the mechanism the outdrive bolts to. Volvos from the 1980s had three BASIC models - a tilt lock mechanism with an electric tilt motor (with the LED light next to the tilt switch), and two power trim models. The early power trim model is the 280PT, and it looks like it has the mumps next to it. THe later one is the 290, and it got an entirely new transom shield/looks/styling. They are very easy to tell apart.

1. This is the back of my old '86 2450, and shows clearly what 90% of 1980s Volvo Bayliners had - this is a 275 outdrive with the raised cavitation plate and the U shaped exhaust outlet, but specific to your application, the transom shield and tilt lock will be very similar to yours:



Same setup, but the older 85s got the typical 280 drive, which you can see has a flatter cavitation plate above the prop and a slightly different exhaust outlet. This is likely what you have:



Basically if it has that transom shield with the blue and silver Volvo Penta badge, you have an earlier setup.

Now, some (and I mean VERY few) Bayliners got a variant of this with an early Power Trim setup called the 280PT. As I said above, this drive looks like it has the mumps, because it has two metal boxes on either side of the drive that handle power trim duty. Here's an illustration:



If you do NOT have the mumps-looking PT drive or the above tilt lock setup, you have a 290PT, which DOES utilize a hydro-electric power trim setup with trim rams between the outdrive and the transom shield. This could be what your mechanic was talking about, but he is most likely wrong on which drive you have, because if you do in fact have a 290PT on a 1985 2550, you will be THE FIRST I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot of them):



You MOST LIKELY have a tilt-lock 280 outdrive, with an ELECTRIC tilt motor. The tilt lock is at the bottom of the transom shield, and is literally a latch the size and shape of your hand, with your fingers half-curled up. The drive rotates freely without the trim motor pushing the drive up. When it does, it triggers the lock to release from the metal trim pin, and the motor then raises the drive. But you can easilly pick it up with your hands once it's released, as the trim motor only lifts the drive, it does not prevent the drive from flopping up on its own.

Your problem, then, is when you kick it into reverse, the tilt lock is not latching onto the trim pin, and the prop thrust is pulling the drive up out of the water.

You need to get this fixed because if the drive raises and then falls with any degree of force, you can damage the U Joints, and the trim pin on the transom shield - which in turn damages the transom shield, and you do NOT want to have to replace one of those...they are rare, expensive, and hard to find.

Hope this helps!

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Here is a pretty good pic of where the latch is. Follow those two hoses to the right, and you can barely make out the hook of the tilt latch poking out from the drive with the spring attached to it. Follow the hoses to the left, and you can see the white nylon nut denoting the latch pin that is bolted into the transom shield in which that latch hooks to. You can see that the trim pin is adjusted manually with three hole positions on the transom shield, and that in this case it is set in the middle position.



You could be so lucky as to just have to clear the trim pin of growth/slime so the latch has a sturdy place to hook onto. This can be done in the water...all you need to do is reach down, pull the latch down, and the drive will swing freely up, or you could tilt the drive with the motor, your call.

Its a dirt-simple device, and its most definiitely not a $3,000 problem.

[Guest]

Matt,

First off, thank you so much for your expertise and knowledge of this issue. I still haven't had a chance to get back to the boat yet but going for 4 days next weekend. I will definitely take pics then, but off memory ( have only had it out of the water once since we bought it last spring for hull clean up) it looks very similar to the first pic you posted). God I only wish it have never been dock kept after seeing the hull of yours...........