Transmission oil all over the bilge

[Sea Gull]

I stepped into the engine room last night and right into an oil slick of amber colored oil. Somewhere, I have developed a leak in the port transmission oil system that has allowed several ounces of oil to drip into the bilge and onto the propeller shaft. The shaft has sprayed this stuff all over the engine room and made a freekin' mess!

I have not yet found the leak, but appears to be near the oil pump. At least that's where the biggest pool of oil ended up. But, since the pump is next to the shaft - not above it - I'm not completely sure as it seems the oil is somehow falling onto the shaft.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn224/jsiegelmica/P1000451.jpg

My plan is to put some fluorescent dye in the transmission to try and find the leak using a UV lamp. Hopefully it's just a loose bolt or hose. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

 

[Nehalennia]

I hate leaks, Best of luck
Here's your pic

 

[Four Suns]

It's amazing how every leak seems to happen right by shafts. We should revisit that whole discussion about putting protective covers over the spinning shafts.

I have now had two different leaks involving the transmission coolers. One cooler, if you recall, had the hydraulic hose for the steering blow up at the fitting and dumped all the fluid on the shaft and left a similar puddle under the starboard transmission:

And then this summer the fitting on the port transmission cooler that feeds the shaft seal cooling water went bad and left a puddle under the port transmission.

I would check the hydraulic fittings on the coolers first for leaks. I'm convinced engine vibrations can weaken those things. Fluid can wick down the hose and then who knows where it's coming from after it gets slung all over the place. Those fittings, however, can be over tightened and they will leak more. Basically you hand tighten them and then do about a 1/3 turn after that to snug them up. Anything more than that and the seal inside will get bent. With my port cooler leak, I ended up replacing both the on cooler fitting as well as the hose so I knew I would get a good seal. Don't ask how I know they can be over tightened.

The only time I've actually had transmission oil leak out was when the seals for the electronic actuators (the things that put it in forward and reverse) went out. The boat was new and under warranty and ZF flew someone into the outer banks of NC to fix those... there was a factory recall on the actuator seal and they put different ones on. It also threw oil on the shaft and crapped up the engine room.

That probably doesn't help you much but gives you a couple ideas. Go ahead and red ball me now for being abrasive and a bully.

Oh... and to keep going with the lipstick on a pig theme, that Mr. Pig place ( http://www.newpig.com) you referred me to is great for those under engine pads... No lipstick needed on that one.

 

[Robski97]

cummins motors Vibrate ??? UR kidding me ...

 

[Four Suns]

You know... someone just dinged me on my post here... unbelievable.

 

[mrsrobinson]

Our leak turned out to be one of the hydraulic hoses, and, on the other tranny it turned out to be an overfilled case, where it blew the excess fluid out of the dipstick thingy. I am told they are designed to do this in case they are overfilled.

 

[mrsrobinson]

You know... someone just dinged me on my post here... unbelievable.

I tried to give you some green on your reply but it tells me I must spread some reputation around around before I can give some to you. Guess we are limited to how nice we can be in one day?

 

[fwebster]

ZF/Hurth gears are generally very good about leaks. More than likely, you are looking for a bad hose fitting, a bad hose or an o-ring in a non-compression type hose fitting that is leaking or has been squeezed out of place.

Your boat is too new for this, but sometimes the gear case vent will get stopped up and force gear oil out of a place it normally wouldn't escape from.

The good news is that most of the time, the oil leak is easily fixed.......cleaning up the bilge tends to be the bigger problem.

Hope I'm right..............

 

[Sea Gull]

Thanks for the input. These are Twin Disk gears, but should be rock solid. There aren't many places a leak can occur. Hopefull with an ounce of glow jiuce and a black light I will find it quickly.

 

[Sea Gull]

Here is an intermediate update:

We dumped the dye into the port tranny and went for a run. While running we did not see any leakage, but by the time we got back to the dock there was transmission oil all over the place. Because the oil is hitting the shaft it is flying everywhere. But, the most likely source - at this point - is the oil fill cap. This cap has a breather built into it and the oil appears to be venting through the breather.

The service outfit is several hundred miles away, so they are trying to troubleshoot this remotely.

My next step is to clean up the bilge (again) and fashion an apparatus to isolate the suspected source. Maybe also shield the shaft somehow so that a drip doesn't fly all over the place. Then I can do another test run.

 

[fwebster]

Look for the gear case vent.........it should look like a screw in fitting with a flat thimble on top of it. The fitting has a vent hole in it and it if gets stopped up, any expansion or internal gear case pressure has to go somewhere else...... like the fill cap.

 

[tmhudson2]

As Greg suggested, perhaps the tranny has been overfilled -- have you or anyone servicing it changed or added oil recently? Ought to be relatively easy to check, and if so, to suck out a little until you get it down to the right level.

I don't envy you the cleanup, though.

 

[osd9]

Jeffl....can you put a camera down there and hook it up to your E120? Shield the camera with some plexiglass and focus on suspected areas.

 

[Sea Gull]

Frank - I'm pretty sure that the fill cap IS the vent on this gear. Air flows through it freely.

tmhudson2 - the level was spot on and is now a bit low from all the oil loss. No oil has been added in the last 70 hours of operation.

Dom - I was thinking the same thing. I might be able to reposition my rear engine room camera to focus on this spot. The problem is that the UV light I have is not very strong and needs to be inches from the oil for the fluorescence to show.