Velvet Drive Damper Plate Life Expectancy

[Ian Andres]

I have a 6BT cummins paired with a Borg Warner using a “Marine Torsional Flex Plate (Velvet Drive, SAE 11.5)” https://www.sbmar.com/product/marine-torsional-flex-plate-velvet-drive-sae-11-5/ . The previous boat owner and I seem to have only gotten about 1000 hours out of them. Because I typically put over 1000 hours on the engine a year this is becoming a bit annoying. My questions are; Is this typical life expectancy of these damper plates or is there another underlying issue? and is there another option for a longer lasting damper plate?  

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[Tony Athens]

Velvet Drive damper plate

Many things affect how long a torsional coupling will last in any application. In the case of your application, you may dealing with a few issues that lead to a short life

Very short spline engagement (about 1″ at best)

Un-lubricated other that what it assembled with

Input shaft spline wear over the years

Type or style of the coupling–Many types

moisture & the resulting Rust / corrosion

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Long term solution may be a “Suredrive”  Do some research on GOOGLE

 

 

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