Cutlass Bearing Query

[Artif]

Because its the central support bearing for your shaft.
Depends on how long and what diameter your shaft is, but it 's probably there for a good reason.

[sabray]

The shaft needs support as it extends out. If the bearings on the outer end have failed then the shaft will start to wobble you will get wicked engine shaking and bad things will happen in lots of places. Unless you never us the engine then its not so bad I guess. If you take a shaft with some length and start spinnin it without support it will go all over the place. Stick a prop on the end of it and drive it out of column it goes wobblie.

[delmarrey]

There seems to be some confusion. Some think the rubber sleeve is the cutless bearing, but if it's 9" long, I dough it.

The cutless bearing would have a metal or fiberglass liner on it's out side. The cutless bearing for the boat in your avatar would most likely be 6" at the most.

Also cutless bearings have longitudinal groves on the inside the length of the rubber.

So we need to determine what it is before we can get a definite answer. Is there still a bearing in the strut?

[whatever]

thanks Delmarrey, you are absolutely correct. The Captain is going to dive again tomorrow, (no college football on!) and we will know more. Also we are a&& deep in gators here, so we have to time all this carefully. We will post more after we know, and hopefully it will not be an imenent(sp) problem!! we are hoping anyway. We certainly can't afford right now to have the boat hauled!! Thank you all for you responses and inputs...and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

[4HMainer]

Originally Posted by whatever

I hope this is a really stupid question, is it at all possible for a composite material cutless bearing sliding down a shaft? Or can a sleeve insert of a metal type come loose and slide down? Thanks for any legit answers...as I said, I really hope this is a stupid query

As you mentioned composite material bearing (not a cutless or cutlass as these are trade or generic names for rubber bearings)

Maritex composite bearings (not rubber) should be bedded on a low melting point epoxy, we've been doing this for years and they never move but it makes the bearing easy to remove when it needs replacing. You can also add a grub screw, tapping a hole through any of the bearing carriers, making sure you don't put any pressure on the bearing with the screw. Drill a dimple or drill through the bearing and make sure the screw doesn't touch the shaft or squeeze the bearing.

If you want any help search for Maritex, or composite marine bearing and talk to one of the suppliers.