www.iFourWinns.com

Wow..not sure ours is that bad as yet..we take a look occasionally when swimming from the boat with goggles...
Most people here only take the boat out once a year for maintenance and cleaning ...

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Bill P
Marbella, Spain
Vista 248 Year 2000
25th Anniversary edition
Volvo Penta Engine and Outdrive

Might want to tilt the drive all the way up and make sure the water intake holes are open and nothing's growing in them. On my OMC Cobra they used a water intake screen that was on the inside and I had to split the upper & lower drive housings because it was a chronic issue with barnacles growing on the water intakes. This screen was used on the outboard lower gearcases and for them it was fine but not for an I/O that sits in the water. I removed the screen as its not really needed (neither Merc nor Volvo used screens). Since then its been much better, I keep a long piece of stiff wire to rod out the holes every now and then. Also a good idea to look at your anodes. Ours usually last the whole season and are not deteriorated that much but we are not in a marina, so no stray currents.

***make sure that when they pull your boat, they pull the outdrive off, and check the bellows for water, the u joints, and gimble bearing for smoothness. If you get salt water leaking into the drive shaft bellows it will corrode the gimble bearing in no time. They should be greasing the gimble bearing, the u joints if they have grease fittings, and the driveshaft splines. When re-mounting the drive, on the Volvo SX style drives you can have corrosion between the upper gear housing mounting surface and the transom mount ( ie the part with the 6 studs coming out for the drive to slide on to). I would put a coating of a good water proof marine grease like the BRP/Evinrude triple guard grease on both surfaces, to prevent corrosion there. Some have had the drive corrode right onto the transom mount because there is no gasket there. Also the drive oil should be changed, the oil checked for water intrusion and engine alignment checked. If all these things are done every season you can have a very long life from the drive unit.
***Other major point in salt water is inspecting exhaust risers/manifolds at 5 years of use. If the gasket between them leaks you can get salt water running into the exhaust gas chamber and then you have salt water corroding exhaust valve stems. I would be replacing the manifolds/risers at approx year 7 or so.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Great advice - thanks..will check that out next time I'm at the boat..its gotta come out of the water anyway as one of the Trim Tab actuator O rings is leaking fluid , and can't be fixed without coming out...pretty annoying

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Bill P
Marbella, Spain
Vista 248 Year 2000
25th Anniversary edition
Volvo Penta Engine and Outdrive

I have the same issue with my 2000 268 vista, plus that at 6' tall my head seems to put a little "bump" in the bimini if I stand, so on longer journeys I tend to sit on a fender

LOL sounds uncomfortable !

I have now given up with these people

www.bolsterbuddy.com

three requests for more info and if they have a European distributor...all ignored

hard to give money to some people these days !

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Bill P
Marbella, Spain
Vista 248 Year 2000
25th Anniversary edition
Volvo Penta Engine and Outdrive

Are your trim tabs Bennett tabs? If so, you may not need to haul out to stop the leak. Go under the transom, grip the actuator with your hand and twist it to the right. You may find that this tightens it enoug to stop the leak and be able to take enough pressure in the system to run properly, at least for a while.

Yes they are Bennett tabs....wasn't possible to turn the actuator at all by hand so in the end the boat came out and we replaced both sets of o rings...problem solved at last !

Thanks

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Bill P
Marbella, Spain
Vista 248 Year 2000
25th Anniversary edition
Volvo Penta Engine and Outdrive

hello,

how difficult of a job to replace the trim tab 'o'ring?

any idea the capacity of the tab reservoir?

zif

Replacing is easy once the boat is out , impossible if it's still in the water .
No idea on capacity, sorry....

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Bill P
Marbella, Spain
Vista 248 Year 2000
25th Anniversary edition
Volvo Penta Engine and Outdrive

When you get the kit it will have a half moon shaped piece of plastic ring. You will pull the tab down and slide the retainer on the shaft. Unscrew the actuator at the top and you will see the o-ring. All of a 5 minute job. The kit will come with directions.You won't lose any fluid Ezy pezy


https://youtu.be/pje_sufnCUY