Drive Shaft Replaced

[NoTies]

Assuming you have only one shaft bearing it looks to me as if the engine is sitting way too low (collapsed engine mount?) If you have two shaft bearings then the actual allignment between the two bearings is out and most likely caused by a bent strut.
Check shaft alignment after replacing the cutlass.

[Redcoat]

V Drive?

[cal40john]

Agreed. Look at the pic of the shaft at the prop end, it is nearly worn to the metal on top. The pic of the front end shows it's worn at the bottom to the metal. To fit in the cutless bearing the shaft has to angled up. The shaft is close to centered in the stern tube so you can't angle the shaft up. That means the strut has been bent or the attachment to the hull is messed up.

Originally Posted by GILow

Looking at the first picture, I get the impression the rear support strut is actually badly out of alignment, at a guess I would say something has hit it rather hard from behind and bashed it forwards.

No point putting a new cutlass in there, it would be chewed out in minutes.

Any recollection of an event that might have caused that strut to move?

Also might be a little bit of movement to port, but that is harder to tell from the pictures, but if I was a betting man... yeah, I'd say to port as well.


Matt

[NoTies]

I missed the shaft being centred in the stern tube. You're absolutely right, it sure looks like a strut problem.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by openseas

II just watched some videos on youtube on how to replace the cutlass bearing, my question is: Do you do the alignment before you change the cutlass bearing or after?

Thanks.

Openseas, please, stop, this is more than just an alignment question. The facetube videos are not in possession of all of the facts.

Before you throw away any more good new parts you have to work out what has gone wrong in your particular situation. There is something significantly out of whack here.

As observed by others, the prop shaft is exiting the hull pretty well centralised (though of course we don't know what is happening at the top of the shaft, it may well be out of alignment) but the strut is not sitting as it should be. You need to find out if it is loose, or bent, or incorrectly mounted and rectify that first. If you correct it first you may then find everything else comes into alignment, THEN go ahead and replace that poor, poor tired old cutlass.

Otherwise you're just throwing more money in the bin. As for the yard that did the work... well...

Matt

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by openseas

Hi all,
I had my drive shaft changed completely recently with the shaft housing. It was changed because the mechanic said that it was the reason I was having leak, which turned out not to be the case.
I spent over $3000.00 on the work, and barely used the boat after ( motored for 5 hours). Recently someone told me that the shaft need to be replaced because the job that was done on it was terrible.
What do you think?
Andy

Let's start over with the proper definishions.
Drive shaft = prop shaft
Shaft housing = I assume that is the stern tube?

If these are correct then what I see is a stern tube that was installed lower then the original causing a bind in the strut, in turn wearing the cutless bearing at an angle. It's obvious, I would take these photos to the guy who did the job and tell him to have it done right or your going to take him to court.

Second, the stern tube doesn't have enough clearance around the shaft. Water needs to get up I there to keep the packing/seal cool, unless water is injected into the seal area it going to over heat.

In order for this shaft to get that far out of alignment with the strut the motor would have been lowered quite a bit, or the strut would have been jammed forward some how, which might be possible. The amount of shaft that is visible between the strut and prop is supposed to be 1-1/2 X the shaft diameter. You have about 3-4 X that.

That is one of the worst jobs of alignment I've ever seem!

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

Let's start over with the proper definishions.


Second, the stern tube doesn't have enough clearance around the shaft. Water needs to get up I there to keep the packing/seal cool, unless water is injected into the seal area it going to over heat.

That is one of the worst jobs of alignment I've ever seem!

Two boats I'm familiar with, Cal 40 and Cal 34 have the prop shaft exiting the keel, no strut, cutless bearing in the trailing edge of the keel. I think there's about a 1/4" hole drilled in the keel just in front of the cutless bearing to increase flow, otherwise it is what gets by the cutless. A lot less water exchange to the stuffing box than on the OP's boat I would think.

http://www.cal40.com/graphics/stern/36A.jpg

[AnchorageGuy]

Someone knowledgeable and on site needs to evaluate what you have, The strut may or may not be bent, out of alignment, etc. Looking at these photos won't tell that. If the strut is fine, the cutlass bearing obviously needs to be replaced. You can do some minor adjustments of the engine and shaft alignment on the hard, but the final alignment needs to be done in the water. If you don't know how to do this, have someone qualified do it for you. Find someone that specializes in running gear and NOT a mechanic. Chuck

[BostonFlicka]

A shot in the dark here, but to your knowledge have you ever severely fouled your prop with a loose line. That strut looks toast. Only other thought is that some monkey didn't know how to pull a prop or place lifting straps.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

I think that's the worst alignment of a propshaft strut I've ever seen. Someone had to have moved it.

We'd appreciate knowing what yard and mechanic not to go to for that kind of work. It is absolutely terrible.

I think I would withhold judgment until more is known. We haven't heard back and have no idea what and how was done in the first place. The OP seems to assume one U joint will align everything... which it wont. We also don't know if the OP was attempting to save money. Maybe the mechanic said "we should align that whole system" and the owner said ... " just replace that shaft, the alignment is taken care of". Just sayin... there's much we don't know...
an/or... if the strut is bent, that may be subsequent damage...

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

I think that's the worst alignment of a propshaft strut I've ever seen. Someone had to have moved it.

We'd appreciate knowing what yard and mechanic not to go to for that kind of work. It is absolutely terrible.

Holy crap man... No kidding Skip....

Originally Posted by cal40john

Agreed. Look at the pic of the shaft at the prop end, it is nearly worn to the metal on top. The pic of the front end shows it's worn at the bottom to the metal. To fit in the cutless bearing the shaft has to angled up. The shaft is close to centered in the stern tube so you can't angle the shaft up. That means the strut has been bent or the attachment to the hull is messed up.

Originally Posted by GILow

Looking at the first picture, I get the impression the rear support strut is actually badly out of alignment, at a guess I would say something has hit it rather hard from behind and bashed it forwards.

No point putting a new cutlass in there, it would be chewed out in minutes.

Any recollection of an event that might have caused that strut to move?

Also might be a little bit of movement to port, but that is harder to tell from the pictures, but if I was a betting man... yeah, I'd say to port as well.
Matt

I go with cal40 and GILow as something with the strut alignment.... something looks amiss... BUT.. I think it's a combo of major mis-alignment at the powerplant end too... Say if the strut weren't holding the shaft, you move the rear mounts .025", that shaft is going to drop 1-1/2" at the end...

Gee ... I wonder why you had a hard time keeping water out of the boat...

[4HMainer]

You can check your strut alignment by getting new clearance fit shaft bearings, with the shaft chocked you should be able to slide the bearing into the strut by hand and turn/spin it. Once that's achieved then the bearing can be bedded on low temp epoxy like Araldite/huntsman 2011. Common practice now on many boats.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by BostonFlicka

A shot in the dark here, but to your knowledge have you ever severely fouled your prop with a loose line. That strut looks toast. Only other thought is that some monkey didn't know how to pull a prop or place lifting straps.

This is a good thought no one else has brought up, maybe it was damaged going back in the water...?

[SkiprJohn]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I think I would withhold judgment until more is known. We haven't heard back and have no idea what and how was done in the first place. The OP seems to assume one U joint will align everything... which it wont. We also don't know if the OP was attempting to save money. Maybe the mechanic said "we should align that whole system" and the owner said ... " just replace that shaft, the alignment is taken care of". Just sayin... there's much we don't know...
an/or... if the strut is bent, that may be subsequent damage...

I agree. All the facts are not in. If it were me I'd start at the engine end of the shaft, unbolt it and see if it springs up or down. That strut is so far out of whack I still think somehow it got moved.

[robert644]

Cutless not cutlass. It 'cuts' 'less' than the old style apparently. Not that it matters.

Looks bad. How could someone even fit a shaft in with such bad alignment. I couldn't do it.

If this boat came into this yard I would definitely check the strut for damage. I would also check engine alignment and pull the shaft to have it checked at the machine shop.

It's hard to believe your boat was lifted incorrectly during launching. I can believe it was pulled out and the strut was damaged, but I would think someone would notice that.

That's a pretty old cutless for sure. It's been in there awhile. At least through one paint job. Did they replace the shaft and not the cutless ? When did all this work occur ?