Volvo 280 drive rebuild

[Trevdua]

Hi all my name is Trevor I am a hydrodynamic engineer from Cape Town South Africa. My father in law and I have taken on a lovely project and perchased a 30ft cruiser which we are going to kit out for tuna and bill fishing. But we have hit a stumbeling block, the craft has two Volvo penta 2.3Ltr 140hp units the AQ125B12.3L (141) 4 cyl models with 280 outdrives fitted. The 280's hav been kitted out with the 290model trim and tilt units. Our problem is that there seemed to have been some bad seal's on the port side drive and water had gotten into the drive unit and damaged the bearings. I am trying to find a supplier for the bearing kits as the local volvo dealers prices are more than purcasing a recon'd drive from the USA and shipping it over here. Could anyone please help below is a picture of the craft.

[baeckmo]

Generally speaking, practically all bearings and sealing units are from standard dimensional series. Check the sides of the rings for stamped info, alternatively measure main dimensions and contact sales office of SKF bearings.

[Trevdua]

Thank you very much for your reply, we have done exactly what you recommended despite the local Volvo dealer saying that these are special bearings that are only available from them we did managed to find the exact match bearings and seals from a from a local bearing supplier and spent R1300 which is about $120 instead of the R18000 about $2000 which the dealer quoted us. So now we can start rebuilding the unit. Thanks again

[whitepointer23]

Originally Posted by Trevdua

Thank you very much for your reply, we have done exactly what you recommended despite the local Volvo dealer saying that these are special bearings that are only available from them we did managed to find the exact match bearings and seals from a from a local bearing supplier and spent R1300 which is about $120 instead of the R18000 about $2000 which the dealer quoted us. So now we can start rebuilding the unit. Thanks again

Make sure the bearing supplier gives you seals in imperial sizes. Sometimes they give you metric seals which are almost identical but they will leak .