European sterndrives / propulsion ahead of america?

Apex1
heres A reference to VM BMW
http://ccgi.vmspecialists.plus.com/release/home.php?id=256016cdadec24a8c547cdb5ba

As you said its very hard to find the data on the web as the VM/BMW story all happened pre internet.
VM have had a few owners too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VM_Motori
Cheers
Powerabout

 

Thank you, very interesting. Well, we are never too old to learn, I could´nt believe.

 

To Powerabout:
You speak with a lot of experience but there is one problem. The engines 190/220 were in deed great engines. The Mark2 stern drive is built of high quality aluminium alloy and has not decayed. I have a 1985 19' Glasply Cuddy, B220/MK2 - and the only thing that has given me problems are the tilt and tach gauges. The real problem lies with the technicians who can't understand the principles of German Engineering. Perhaps a bit too complicated for most who never had a true mechanical comprehension.

 

How do you explain the universal joints that hit each other at close to full tilt?
It was clear when I attended BMW school, they couldnt fix things either. In reality the Germans made fools of themselves in front of the dealers.
Most components were designed not to be repaired just replace whole assemblies.
The clutch pack drive although seemed a good idea at the start tell me where Hurth is today.
The only thing that was far superior to anything on the market at the time was the paint on the drive. Remove your top housing from the bottom and see how the aluminium inside corrodes as the epoxy paint was not applied there.
I do have a soft spot for them but they failed to employ anyone from the marine industry to advise them on how to do it so the product had plenty of beginner mistakes from day one which in the mid 80's was appalling.
Supplying petrol engines with points ignition in the 80's was 10 years behind the US.
They had a great opportunity to take a solid part of the petrol/diesel inboard/sterndrive market and they blew it, pure and simple.

 

True in many ways. That U joint problem is one you just have to learn to deal with. I would never start any other stern drives with a full tilt up position anyways. Corrosion has not yet set in. I keep my anodes nearly up to 60%.
In a perfect world we would probably never see anything but 4 stroke outboards.

 

What happens if you hit an underwater object and the drive flicks up?

EDIT>> You will learn that not only was it designed wrong but then you have to fix it that will mean as the U joints are not repairable you need to replace the assembly.
That assembly is heated and shrunk onto a taper so you need your SKF 50,000 psi port a power coupling remover - which wont remove it as proved by skf in the BMW workshops much to their chagrin.
SO you need to replace the whole shaft in the top housing but it has the seal/bearing carrier between the u joint and the clutch pack.
OK buy new u joint and new input shaft new bearing housing and refit you old clutch pack to that then re shim the shaft and then heat and shrink the new u joint assembly onto your new shaft - no wonder they lost the war
PS the propshaft gear is also shrunk on a taper on the propshaft and there is no tool to remove the seal carrier behind the prop so clearly they intended a complete upper or lower to be replaced and never repaired.