Volvo Penta Sterndrive Identification Chart

Volvo Penta Sterndrive Identification Chart

If you are ordering parts for a sterndrive, the drive model matters more than the engine in front of it. Bellows, anodes, propellers, seals and drive oil are all decided by which leg is bolted to your transom — and a great many boats have had a different drive fitted at some point in their life.

This chart lists 69 Volvo Penta sterndrive models from the original AQ range through to the current DPS, DPI, DPH and forward-facing FWD drives, with a drawing of each where one exists, the features that tell them apart, the gear oil each takes, the drive oil capacity and the available gear ratios.

How to identify your drive

Work through these in order — the first one that gives you an answer is usually enough:

• Compare the drawings below against the leg on your transom. Shape, exhaust exit and propeller arrangement separate most of the families at a glance.
• Count the propellers. Two contra-rotating propellers on one shaft means a Duoprop drive — the DP, DPS, DPX or DPH families. A single propeller points at the SP or SX families.
• Look for the drive's own plate or decal. It is separate from the engine's, and usually sits on the transom shield inside the boat or on the upper housing where the leg meets the transom.
• Check the clutch and joint type on the older AQ drives — claw versus cone clutch, and Zeppa versus universal joint, separate models that otherwise look alike.
• Match the serial number where a range is listed below. On the early drives the serial is what separates one specification from the next.

The chart

Capacities are the drive's own gear oil, not the engine oil. Where a drive is listed as taking the same oil as the engine, that is Volvo Penta's own instruction for that model rather than an omission.

Drives built before 1986. If the drive was built before 1986 for a 30- or 40-series engine and has previously been run with engine oil in the drive, Volvo Penta's instruction is to keep using engine oil rather than switching it to gear oil.

Drawings are shown for 44 of the 69 drives. The later models — the DPS, DPH, DPI, DPR and forward-facing FWD ranges — are not illustrated on the source chart, so no drawing is shown rather than a substitute one.

Reading it properly

Three things worth knowing before you order anything off this chart.

The serial number governs. Several drives changed specification partway through production, and where the chart lists a serial range that range is the deciding factor, not the model name on its own.

Capacity is a guide to how much to have on hand, not a substitute for the dipstick. Fill to the level your manual specifies and check it — installation angle changes what a drive actually holds.

Your operator's manual wins any disagreement with this page. This chart is a quick reference we keep for the workshop, and we have published it because it is genuinely hard to find. It is not a replacement for the manual for your specific drive and serial.

The oil your drive takes

Most drives in the table call for synthetic API GL-5 SAE 75W-90, and the genuine Volvo Penta drive oil is stocked in four sizes — 1 litre, 5 litre, 20 litre and 208 litre. Read your drive's capacity off the table and allow a little over, because you will lose some in the change. The propeller shaft grease listed on the chart is 828250.

Two exceptions worth a phone call rather than a guess. DP-G takes 75W-140, not 75W-90. And the drives listed as taking the same oil as the engine are decided by the engine's specification rather than the drive's, so the grade depends on what is in front of it.

Parts for your drive

Once you know which drive you have, the Volvo Penta drives and propulsion range carries the anodes, bellows, seals and hardware for it, and the Engine / Drive filter on that page narrows it to your own series. The wider oil ranges are in oil and lubrication and oils and chemicals, and our other workshop charts are on the reference charts page.

Two jobs this chart usually leads to: our guide to sterndrive bellows covers the rubber that seals the transom opening, and our guide to choosing the right anode covers the corrosion protection that is decided by the drive rather than the engine.

Not sure which one you have?

Send us a photo of the drive and the transom shield and we will identify it for you. As the authorised Volvo Penta dealer for South Australia we have the factory parts data for every drive on this chart, including the ones long out of production. Ring 0412 532 984 — it takes a minute and it is a lot cheaper than a part that does not fit.