I am re-powering my Flying Dutchman FD12, and the old system uses a hydraulic drive with a separate thrust bearing.
Motor is connected to the thrust bearing and
pump is mounted on the
engine.
My
Diesel Duck
trawler had a u-joint auto style drive shaft between the
engine and thrust bearing, and I am wondering why such a set up would not
work on my sailboat?
When I remove the hydraulic
motor, I will be left with a thrust bearing output flange. It would be a simple matter to fabricate a constant velocity drive shaft to connect the thrust bearing to the conventional
gearbox output.
There would be several advantages:
No alignment issues. This is important to me as I have little faith that the "mechanic" in Subic can align the engine properly.
The engine could sit horizontal, or in any attitude required to fit
Beta engines have the
gearbox output from 3.5 - 5" lower than the crank centreline so a drive shaft simplifies clearance issues.
Engine mounts are easy to fabricate
Any change in alignment when the
boat goes into the
water, or the mounts sag is a non issue
The downside is that unlike my DD there is no room to install a dripless
shaft seal so I have a conventional drippy stuffing box.
Rust on the u-joints is a concern, unless there is such a thing as SS u-joints?
Or is there a
commercial version of this
concept, a CV style joint, or a flex type shaft?
There must be a reason why this is not more common..................