Sail drive with too much axial clearance of propeller

[Sea Angel1]

Hi there,

the propeller on my saildrive VP 130S-B has an axial clearance of about 4 mm (3/16") on its shaft. The propeller (3-blade foldable) is kept in place on the shaft through a standard spacer (Volvo pn 358 2887) and the propeller hub, resting against a shoulder on the propeller shaft and torqued (70Nm?) up. But still there is the 4 mm axial clearance. Is this clearance normal or is there some wear or is the spacer a wrong one? Anybody knows what the length of this spacer? Maybe someone has put in a wrong spacer? Pushing the propeller towards the vertical main housing, also in forward drive the gap between zinc anode and hub is appr. 1 mm. pulling the prop to the stern (also in reverse drive) the gap is appr. 5 mm.
The face of the propeller hub looking towards the zinc anode (new) has some grooves because of trapped fishermen's lines, between Anode and prop hub. However this problem cannot result in an increase of clearance, only the gap could have been increased. Any ideas?

A line cutter on the hub could avoid these problems? I haven't found a supplier for these cutters on the Volvo Penta foldable 3 blade Propellers !

Thanks for your attention.

[BillKny]

Originally Posted by Sea Angel1

Hi there,

the propeller on my saildrive VP 130S-B has an axial clearance of about 4 mm (3/16") on its shaft. The propeller (3-blade foldable) is kept in place on the shaft through a standard spacer (Volvo pn 358 2887) and the propeller hub, resting against a shoulder on the propeller shaft and torqued (70Nm?) up. But still there is the 4 mm axial clearance. Is this clearance normal or is there some wear or is the spacer a wrong one? Anybody knows what the length of this spacer? Maybe someone has put in a wrong spacer? Pushing the propeller towards the vertical main housing, also in forward drive the gap between zinc anode and hub is appr. 1 mm. pulling the prop to the stern (also in reverse drive) the gap is appr. 5 mm.
The face of the propeller hub looking towards the zinc anode (new) has some grooves because of trapped fishermen's lines, between Anode and prop hub. However this problem cannot result in an increase of clearance, only the gap could have been increased. Any ideas?

A line cutter on the hub could avoid these problems? I haven't found a supplier for these cutters on the Volvo Penta foldable 3 blade Propellers !

Thanks for your attention.

You'll need to be a little clearer on your description... are you saying that the propeller moves on the shaft by 1 mm when you pull on it? If so this is totally unacceptable.

A photo would also help...

[Sea Angel1]

hi Bill,
thanks for your response. The propeller moves even 4 mm !
I will try to add a photo.

[Sea Angel1]

[Sea Angel1]

here is the pic of the assy. Shown with the smallest gap.

[Sea Angel1]

herewith I add a cross section sketch of the Saildrive S-130 S-B.
The clearance between hub and anode only can originate from a too short spacer ring. Wenn it is too short the prop hub cannot be torqued up against the shaft shoulder and the lock nut only is being torqued up against the driveshaft shoulder on the end of the spline.
(BTW, the securing plate with end nut is not correctly drawn, sorry).
The upper half of the sketch shows how the assy should be, the lower half shows how the actual situation is.
Any ideas?

Sea Angel