Mirage Drive - Maintenance Time

[tufnik]

Winter is the best time, so I did my annual mirage drive maintenance today.

Took it apart, cleaned the shafts and bores, and re-greased. The drum shaft looks a little worn, but I think it'll do (maybe a year more?). The long sprocket shaft was quite dirty, but a little WD-40 removed the crud. This shaft also had a little wear. The pulley shaft had very little wear. Well, after 2 1/2 years of use, and I yak fished a lot in open bay or Atlantic waters, you'd expect a little wear. The exposed part of the cable ends had a little surface rust, so I sealed them with grease. I also cleaned and re-greased the pedal shafts.

Last year I used general purpose white lithium grease. It didn't seem to last very long, so this time I used this blue Mystik grease specifically for marine use. Hope it works well.

Are you guys cleaning up your drives?

[daolai]

Thanks for the pics - I need to get started on my winter projects and this has just been added to the list.

[Shawn L]

Got mine apart now. So far it looks remarkably good. I tried to make a habit of hosing it down and putting corrosion preventative on it after each trip. Will need to get grease tomorrow and then I hope I can get it back together. Thanks for the reminder.

[JKay]

I wash it down after every trip. When it's dry (if I think about it), I'll spray it with some WD40. Two of the cables finally broke last spring. The drive is vintage 2008, upgraded to V2 Turbos. I can't complain about getting that kind of life out of it with minimal maintenance.

[tufnik]

ShawnL,
What of preventative do you use?

JKay,
Which cables broke?

I wash my drive with soap and water after every trip. Hose it down well to remove all salt since I yak fish in saltwater 98% of the time.

Last year my idler cable broke after about 800 hrs of fishing on the water. I used the yak 1 1/2 yrs before the breakage. I'm wondering when the chain cables will break. Maybe I should replace them before either breaks, but who knows, maybe they're only half way through its life. Idler and chain cables cycle differently.

I read forums where a lot of people say WD40 is not the best. One guy did a test on silicone, WD40 and Break Free as rust preventative and lubricant. The best was Break Free. I now use Break Free. Prior to that I used WD40. I didn't like the way it washed off the drive and on to and stained the plastic hull. It's lubricating qualities I thought was questionable because of the thin viscosity and it seemed to wash off easily while on the water. Break Free suppose to be better. We'll see.

[Shawn L]

I used WD-40 water resistant silicone lube this time. You can get it at Lowes or Home Depot. Over the summer I used a similar product found in Walmart but they did not have it at the moment. I forget the name but if I come across it I'll post it here. It was good stuff and I hope to find it again since I also used it on fishing tools ie. pliers etc.

[JKay]

JKay,
Which cables broke?

I wash my drive with soap and water after every trip. Hose it down well to remove all salt since I yak fish in saltwater 98% of the time.

Last year my idler cable broke after about 800 hrs of fishing on the water. I used the yak 1 1/2 yrs before the breakage. I'm wondering when the chain cables will break. Maybe I should replace them before either breaks, but who knows, maybe they're only half way through its life. Idler and chain cables cycle differently.

I read forums where a lot of people say WD40 is not the best. One guy did a test on silicone, WD40 and Break Free as rust preventative and lubricant. The best was Break Free. I now use Break Free. Prior to that I used WD40. I didn't like the way it washed off the drive and on to and stained the plastic hull. It's lubricating qualities I thought was questionable because of the thin viscosity and it seemed to wash off easily while on the water. Break Free suppose to be better. We'll see.

Sorry for the late response; I've been traveling on business. The idler chain and one of the other chains broke. I thought it was only one chain until I got home and took a good look at it. Hard to believe that 2 chains went at the same time, but it did.

The only reason that I use WD40 is because that's what the Hobie dealer uses. You're right...it does not have super good lubricating properties and it is not viscous. I actually installed some stainless steel Zerk fittings on the drive and it worked! The problem is that the composite material of the drive is too soft and the fittings would pull out fairly easy. If I had to do it over, I'd drill a larger hole and epoxy a threaded insert into the composite material. The Zerk fitting could then screw into the insert. I'm still intrigued by the idea and may try it someday.

[Goody]

I just ordered some parts to have on hand and do some preventative maintenance on the mirage drive. I noticed that the nylock nut was unthreading itself at this last G&M and the chain near the rear is fully stretched to the point where you can't adjust the nut anymore to tension it up. My idler pulley chipped a little on the inside edge. I ordered parts from ACK and picked up some nylock nuts at homedepot. This year I'm going to use Super Lube grease which is synthetic and suppose to not be effected by saltwater. In addition, I'm also using a marine grade silicone that was recommended and being used by a Hobie shop down in Florida. I'll see how it does this season.

This past year I was using WD40 and rinsing the drive after every outing.