Broken driveshaft does anyone have the dimensions?

[RobS]

Agreed, the bronze is "pink" but no doubt on re-using it (it being the housing, not the bearing).
Nice touche' pic of the shaft in the car - I guess it helped that it was a little shorter!
The new one might not fit in the car

[Tree]

Just for reference. I pulled my cutlass today and my housing lip was also pink, also a little soft. I contacted Buck Aloqhin (sp) and they have three housings on the shelf. If you need to purchase they said to buy through Blue Seas Yachting as they are the distributor. I've fitted mine back for the remainder of the season as the lip is purely for location and next year (because I have my own precision engineering business) I will machine the lip away and counterbore the housing and fit a new collar. $380 is the cost to replace if I recall.

[Pedro]

That's what my machine shop did with mine when they saw the corroded lip, (faster than waiting for a new one), it was as good as new in a few minutes,

[gfuller]

Thanks guys!

So about the cutlass removal - I've seen guys take a hacksaw and screwdriver to pry them out... not sure this is the best method but thought I'd get some input. I had planned on taking it to a shop and having them use a bench press of some sort but if someone has a nifty trick I'd try that out. Getting it back in may be more difficult? Any ideas are welcomed. Thank you!

For the Tides seal. I just got one in the mail, thanks for the explanation Rob. Is the retaining ring just a snap ring that uses the standard snap ring pliers (similar to what holds everything in the raw water pump)? I'm assuming that's all that holds the seal into place? I saw on the newer tides seals (sureseal) there is actually a face that comes off before removing the retaining ring.

[RobS]

Cutlass Bearing:
Have the cutlass pressed out and pressed in with a hydraulic press.


Tides Shaft Seal:
It's a snap ring with an angled end so you can remove it with flat bladed screwdriver or the like. It's not the clip with the two small holes that you could use the snap-ring pliers on. Just make sure it is FULLY seated in the groove on reassembly.

Blue arrow - housing
Red arrow - snap ring
Green arrow - lip seal

Another thing to check is that the grooves in the shaft seal housing are all clear. You can see in this pic that the plastic must have heated up a bit and spread into the passages. I cleared the grooves out before reassembling.

[gfuller]

Have I ever mentioned how awesome it is that you are a member of this forum?

That clears it up 100% I had not looked at my tides seal since the day I had it in the water and forgot what I'd be dealing with so this is great. I'll probably bring a heat gun or something in case it's a bit rough getting it off the log.

Thank you, Rob and everyone else. This is awesome. Definitely gave me the confidence to tackle this on my own. The shaft and Prop should be here Friday or Saturday (and going in the same day). I found a local shop that will press out the cutlass and press the new one in tomorrow.

oh and I'm taking PTO the entire week next week if it's back in and running!

[gfuller]

Hey guys,

So I've made some good progress and in doing so have a couple of concerns and would love some input.

The first: Engine alignment.

I installed the new shaft and attached the coupler and just pushed the shaft back to meet the coupler on the tranny. I've taken some pics. The shaft seems to "sag" a bit, is this ok or is it an alignment issue? there is really no support for a few feet so I assume this is somewhat normal but please correct me if I'm wrong. If I can get these two flanges (coupler & tranny) to ligh up by hand will it be ok with the exception of maybe having to raise or lower the front of the engine once I start putting the bolts through to tighten up potential slack top/bottom of the flanges where they meet?








I'm going to as the second question in a new post as I think they only allow 3 image links......

[gfuller]

My second question/concern is the prop fitment... I have a 20x17 which was sworn by Acme and proven to work on other Albins with great success... supposedly.

In the first pic, I'm wondering if there is enough clearence between the prop blade and the skeg... it's like 3/8"....

I just slapped the prop on, no key, hand pushed etc... Should the shaft be flush with the back of the prop hub? I was just attempting to see how far it goes/should go up the shaft for once I put the key in, I know what to shoot for.

Does it matter what way the prop goes on? (size print facing stern?) - sorry I know this is a ridiculous question and I should know the answer to it by mearly owning one of these boats but I have not done any of this before so please bear with me!

[RobS]

If alignment was accurate before you did this the alignment should not need adjusting other than perhaps making it better than it was before. Put the coupler bolts in (new grade 8 hardware with lube on the threads, not stainless butter bolts) and snug them and then back off enough that you can separate the flanges to get your feeler gauge in there. Use .003" as your target. You can put the .003" on one side between the flanges and then check your clearances using a second feeler gauge going around the coupler perimeter as to how the .003" is maintained. If the flanges are not touching anywhere and you get no more than .006" then you've maintained .003" or better. Write down the clearances at different positions. Then unbolt and rotate the shaft into a different orientation reference the tranny flange and do it again. The clearances should stay the same at the same positions. If not either your tranny flange is slightly out or your shaft coupler is not true. Was it fitted and faced by the machine shop? Alignment should be rechecked once she splashes although the way these boats are built I doubt you'd see and change unless the boat was really blocked poorly.

The more critical clearance is the tip to hull clearance - do you have ~3" there? That lower clearance should be ~3/4" for that size prop. It looks like it could be close to that in your side view pic.

The prop should be lapped to the shaft using valve grinding compound. Coat the shaft with the compound and hold the prop on with a prop nut and spin the prop and check the mating surfaces until you achieve ~75% contact. You don't want to point load the shaft. Then clean it all up and reinstall without the key and mark the shaft ahead of the prop with blue tape. Once you reinstall with the key make sure the prop reaches that same exact spot. The key should not inhibit the prop seating on the shaft. Make sure the key has no sharp edges, dress it with a stone or such if needed. When you chock or block the prop with a piece of wood to tighten the nuts chock it in tight where the blades meet the hub, not out on the edges or you will twist a blade.

Oh, and as far as which way the prop goes on..... If you do more boating backwards than in forward go ahead and put it on backwards!! (good luck getting the taper to fit)

[socalmike]

There will be some sag when the coupler is unbolted and pulled forward a bit. What I did was made sure the shaft was centered in the stern tube before I slid the dripless into place. I noticed the shaft was low in the stern tube so I raised the front of the motor to achieve center. By doin this, it allowed the shaft to spin easily with one hand and I new the dripless was going to be positioned properly. I was surprised to see the yard mechanic attempt to put things back together with the shaft so low in the stern tube. By doing this yourself, you will have complete confidence in the work.

[WillieC]

"Oh, and as far as which way the prop goes on..... If you do more boating backwards than in forward go ahead and put it on backwards!! (good luck getting the taper to fit)"

Hilarious! But for your consideration, a left hand threaded bolt is still left hand threaded no matter which way it faces. Same for right hand threads.