Bow thruster kicked pin out -- Jeanneau 54DS

[blue_dream]

Hello everyone thanks for looking,

So I have a Jeanneau 54DS with a max power - ct 125 I believe it is original to the boat so 2004. I also know they reingineered the leg and coupling in 2011 so current online schematics are very similar but not exact.

The new unit is a completely sealed leg whereas mine (according to tech support) can be taken apart.

So, My bow thruster was making some funny noises (not healthy ones) and had actually kicked out the pin that couples the motor to the drive leg. I found it next to the motor. Which made sense as to the symptoms which were that the motor was operating but not turning the thruster.

Before just reinserting the pin I wanted to remove the coupling on the leg to clean everything.

When I did this I tested the rotation of the shaft and noticed that when rotating the leg drive shaft with a screw driver it did not feel very smooth and would get hung up after about three turns in one direction in which case I would have to go the other direction in order to get it to rotate. Also at times it felt as if the drive shaft was freewheeling and not rotating the blades for about 60 degrees of a turn here and there.

All and all I think that the thruster kicking the pin out was a symptom of this problem and not the problem being solely that the pin had come loose.

I have tried tech support in Italy who forwarded me to Greece who then forwarded me to their warehouse in FLL who does not have tech support but actually just a guy who ships the parts who was fairly helpful but also seemed to be under the impression that anything 15 years old on a boat is long gone beyond its serviceable life.

I disagree as it seems to have been cared for well and has operated fine for me the past two months.

The boat was sitting for two years on the hard before launch. wanted to put that in there. Also I did all maintenance before launch I could figure to be done but could not find the original manual as the new manual for that unit is for the sealed maintenance free leg.

I hope I can repair this. I dove down and rotated it by hand and it felt fine but maybe some fishing line in there? This would be best case.

Worst case I have to fit a new leg. Has anyone done this in the water?

Thanks for reading!!

Tommy