EXPerts!!! V Drive 08 Z1

[Carranza913]

Please help out a new tige owner. I have searched the forum and found most of my information but have a couple questions.
Bought an 08 Z1 with 44 hours on it. I am going through and checking everything before winter and having it winterized.

1. Both of the caps/dipstick on my transmission and v drive seem to be painted same color as the transmission and v drive(chipping off easily). In other pictures of z1 they are red. Not a huge deal I just want to know if it is something the previous owner did or if they had something done to the transmission and v drive.

2. I am flushing out my v drive fluid as it is just slightly milky. I extracted about a quart, is their a drain plug on the v drive I can drain the rest? Hurth ZF IV. When people refer to flushing out with Diesel I assume they mean fuel? correct?

3. When I opened the cap/dipstick for v drive and tranny there was what sounded like quite a bit a pressure releasing. Is this normal?

4. If there is in fact water getting into my v drive how tough is this to fix? pulling whole v drive and tranny out?

5. I bought 30W oil from west marine to put in the v drive. Is this sufficient? I believe it is just heavy duty 30w 4 cycle engine oil.

6. I had a small leak from my PSS first time out. I took some 800 grit sandpaper and slid it between the metal ring and the charcoal hoping that would fix it for the last couple times of summer use. I noticed that my shaft seal does not have a water hose connected to it as in the pictures from pss. Is this just a factory seal that came with it? Or should I be ordering a new one with the water hose connected to the charcoal.

Thank you in advance for the answers. I am new to owning a boat but loving every minute of it so far and really enjoy working on it.

[boatwakes]

1) Those dipsticks are painted red to indicate their location.
2) If your V-drive has milky fluid SOMETIMES it is from condensation, MOST of the time it is from a leaking fluid cooler from a pinhole in the cooler. Correct that condition first before continuing winterization otherwise the gears will develop surface rust and next season will be a bummer.
3) The pressure/vacuum release is normal and indicates healthy seals and generally a healthy cooler.
4) The walter V-drive has an internal cooler and the unit will need to be removed for repair after pressure testing the water side of the cooler and verifying a leak down.
5) Non detergent 30w is what the manufacturer recommends but standard 30w is suitable for this application.
6) PSS must have a water connection, investigate what happened to yours but the unit will have to be replaced if the graphite surface was compromised due to heat. Not all packings run a water cooling line so verify first you have a PSS and then move forward.

Post any other questions and good luck!

[Carranza913]

Thank You for the reply. I called Tige today and got information to see about replacing the in line cooler. I am going to flush fluid a couple times then replace the fluid for the last couple trips of summer and see if it comes back milky. Then I will have a better idea of how the water is getting in.

I picked up some 30w ND from Advanced auto parts and I am hoping that will work. It was in the lawn mower section but I assume it is fine.

I was told by Tige that they used a non water cooled pss and that I could move the boot about an 1/8" closer to the metal to form a better seal. I will loosen the clamps and see how this works.

[lee]

I was told by Tige that they used a non water cooled pss and that I could move the boot about an 1/8" closer to the metal to form a better seal. I will loosen the clamps and see how this works.

You need to loosen the set screws in the stainless steel ring and then compress the boot. There will be two set screws in each hole.

[Carranza913]

I thought I couldn't re use the set screws?

[Jetdriver]

My shaft seal is the same type and was leaking when I got the boat. There is a specific preload that you need to apply to the boot to get it to seal properly and it's based on the diameter of your shaft.(1 1/8") there is a detailed description on here about that job if you search for it. Sorry I can't remember the preload amount. Like mentioned there are two set screws in EACH hole. I reused mine without any problems.
With the ZF Hurth trans/vdrive make sure you use tranny fluid in your transmission but the drive can take 30w without issue.
There are drains on both the vdrive and transmission(tranny actually has a screen too) but they're very difficult to get to, you're better off sucking out as much fluid as you can with an extractor. Id run it for a couple outings then change it again to get all the moisture out.