Last year I installed a Beta 38 in my 37 ft sailboat. The transmission ratio is 2.04:1 and the engine/trans installation angle is 10 degrees. The engine is a 3600 rpm model and now has about 120 hours on it. The oil level is maintaind at the full mark on the dipstick. The transmission has leaked since day one. It seems that most if not all the leak is coming from two small holes in the filler cap/dipstick assy. Most of the rear of the transmission case is wet with oil so I can't really determine if the rear output shaft seal is leaking also. Every picture I've seen of this transmission including the PRM web page and the drawings of the transmission in the Beta Marine manual show a breather located at the forward edge of the top of the transmission 12 mm to the left of centerline. My transmission came with a socket head pipe plug installed where the breather should be. I assume the two holes in the filler plug are suppose to act as a breather but they allow the transmission oil to escape when operating the boat under power. Should my transmission have a breather and would a breather stop the oil leak? The Beta 38 is a wonderful little engine and I would be thrilled if I could stop the transmission from leaking.
Hello Jim, Usually, if there is an oil leak or any other issue, we get advised of it within a few days. There are two breather assemblies available for the PRM120 and we will happily send you the forward one and a different dipstick if this will solve the problem. Please contact us at the office and advise your address. Stanley
I provided advice of all issues I had with the engine including this leak a year ago. As you can tell from this post the leak still exists. As to whether or not the installation of a breather and a fill cap with no holes will fix the leak I have no idea. I was hoping you could provide some input on that. Thank you for your offer to send a breather. I will email you my shipping address and hopefully this will solve the problem.
I now know why your name didn't ring any bells with me. You purchased your engine through the distributor on the west coast. I have spoken to Ethan and he has offered to have a look see at your problem. I will however send the dipstick and breather out today so that he (or his mechanic) will have the parts with him when they see the problem.
Ethan Hirschfeld from Beta Marine West came down to my boat and installed the forward transmission breather and replaced the fill cap/dip stick assy with a non-vented unit. We ran the engine in gear for about 15 minutes at the dock. Normally this would cause oil to seep from the vents in the oil fill cap. With the forward breather in place no oil escaped the transmission. I will check it again after a sea trial but it looks like this fixed the issue. There was some speculation that due to the fairly steep 10 degree angle of the engine that this may have induced the leak at the rear breather location requiring the forward location of the breather. Now that the breather is at the shallow end of the pool so to speak, there is no leak. Thanks Stan for the parts and thank you Ethan for coming out to my boat to make sure everything was ship shape.
