Sand in MD180 drive

I've had my new Outback since January and now that Summer is here, I've finally been able to use it 6-7 times. Today was my 1st beach launch in this new 2017 kayak with the MD180 drive. Like I've done dozens of times before in my older Outback, I left the drive in while landing on the beach. The pedal arm was held fully back with the attached cable. I got home and was rinsing it off with fresh water and it is very crunchy when I rotate the pedal arms now. There is sand in there. How do I get it out? If the answer is "you need to tear it down", please provide instructions to do so, including what type of grease may need to be reapplied.

Thanks,
Dave

If you have an air compressor, you might try blowing the sand out. If that doesn't work, here is a video for partial disassembly. Note the sprockets and "booms" are part of the spine assembly and are not user serviceable -- hopefully the sand is in the chain - sprocket area. If you have to replace the spine, you might check to see if Hobie has a trade-in program. Good luck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2BwZLC ... u.be&t=38s

PS IMO, it's best to pull the Drive before beaching your boat to avoid this issue in the future.

Yes, the new drive does appear to be more susceptible to sand ingress and it is a bit tricky to get it out. I had to dissassemble one and clean it out for a customer who beached their kayak with the drive in it. That video does not show you everything you need to know to get access to the sprockets, which is what you need to do. It does show chain and drum removal (you will need to do this) but once they are out of the way you need to gain access to the sprockets and here's where it gets a little tricky (compared to V1/V2/GlideTech versions). I would like to see Hobie address the how-to on this in a video. I stumbled my way through it and here's what I found:

There are four sets of bearings inside and you need to get all of them out and clean them off (Sand particles will be stuck to the thin layer of grease that is used when the drives are built) as well as wipe out any sand inside the sprocket assembly. To gain access to the sprocket assemblies you need to remove both sprocket guards (start from the rear and work your way towards the front). Be careful not to lose any bearings as you do this because once you start disassembling it they will fall out.

Putting it back together is harder than pulling it apart in that it can be tricky to keep the bearings where you need them. Perhaps there is a technique to this I'm not aware of, but the only way I was able to do it was to replace the bearings (once I'd cleaned them all off) with a bit of grease. The grease did a good job of keeping the bearings in place while I reassembled it.

A part of me was somewhat hesitant to do this because I have read a comment in these forums from Matt recently that Hobie does not recommend grease for lubing MDs because sand particles can stick to it (he recommended Hobie lube). However, these was factory installed grease inside the sprockets from the get-go and yes, this is what most of the sand was stuck to (and no, I doubt a high pressure hose or air pump would have helped removing the sand in this case). Try as I might, I couldn't keep the bearings in place for reassembly unless I used a little grease to keep them in place.

After having performed this procedure I can thoroughly recommend avoiding beaching ones MD180 equipped kayak with the drive in place. Prevention is better than cure

_________________
Kayak Fishing Specialist: SLH
https://slhobie.com.au

The same thing happened to me. I was able to get the sand out by sticking the drive under water and moving the pedals. I pull the drive out before I beach it now.

Thank you all. I'll try the underwater pedaling method, but am not optimistic. It is very crunchy.

If it helps, instead of a bathtub I bought a cheap $20 32-gallon standard plastic trashcan with lid from Home Depot. Like this one:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-Roughneck-32-Gal-Black-Round-Trash-Can-with-Lid-1778013/100656030

This is an old scuba diving trick, it's what we do to rinse our tanks, regulators, BCDs, fins, wetsuits, and other gear after a dive, especially a salt-water dive.

I fill it with water and completely immerse the drives. I let them soak for a little while also. Maybe 15 minutes to an hour depending on how grimy they are or what else I have to do in the meantime. They get well flushed out and rinsed. You can even operate the pedals a bit back and forth to work the fresh clean water through.

The trash can is very heavy afterwards, so do this on grass or near a drain or ground-level flower bed because when you tip it over, you're going to get 32 gallons of water all over something.

This is good time for "Hobie customer service" to provide a complete tear down/rebuilt video (not partial) of the the 180 Mirage drive. Your not alone, I had fine grain silt in the bearings. I used WD40 to flush it out and I would NOT advise this method. It worked but I just cut the life of the drive considerably. Don't bother going to your dealer they have very little knowledge of the new version, at least in my case.

We do not recommend tearing down past the spine assembly. The internal line connections are very complicated. Pedaling in water or flushing with a hose should do it. Then re-lube with Hobie Multi-Lube.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Did as suggested and filled my bathtub with water. Let the drive soak for an hour while pedaling by hand every 15 minutes. Lots of sand came out. Now its squeaky clean...literally. No more crunchiness. I need to get me some of that Multi-Lube now.

Thank you!

Good to know

_________________
Kayak Fishing Specialist: SLH
https://slhobie.com.au