Strut Stuck

Thanks Gary.

Not much progress to report. Life's had me on the go.

Cleaned up the strut and started on recess. I haven't worked with fiberglass and resins in about 40 years so I'm having to study up a bit to regain my confidence.


Initial clean up.


Chasing a void.



Here between my finger tips the fiberglass ain't right. Tapping here I get a sound like tapping on a plastic putty knife lying on a Formica counter. A raspy sound compared to the thud of tapping elsewhere in the recess.   I guess I’ve got to go deeper.


I’m curious about why the rudder port is so well reinforced topside and the strut is not. I haven’t yet looked into how deep the stress fractures are topside above the strut, but am wondering if this whole area should be reinforced. How thick should the hull be above the strut?

Thanks Jim. Sorry about the bearings. Been there. I used to live on Six Mile Creek. It'll be fun to run around there again sometime soon and meet you guys.

I'd like that Mark. Great pic Jim! Thanks!

Nice looking boat BTW!

Pete, the boat was bottom painted some time ago. But, I don't feel any evidence of repair in the strut/rudder area. I'll start cleaning things up and keep you posted on my progress.

And thanks Gary. I'll address the steering linkage when I get there.

While your back there fix your rudder connection as well. You need one of these

Thanks Pete! Sounds simple enough. We'll see if I can do it all right the first time. Lost a fair amount of glass with the stut. Would you replace it?

Here are pics with masurements and inside conditions. Note, the rudder port is recessed too. Odd as well? Lots of stress cracks inside and one long, straight, side to side crack (arrows) that has me curious. I wonder if I should glass over this area to shore up any weakness that may have developed over the years.



Mark, I may have found your missing key.

I've been wondering, too, if Mark did not support the forward end of the shaft in the log center when he aligned and mounted the 6A6. That would explain a lot. And, the slopping to port at permanent install is very possible. Seems to me from the amount of wear that the shaft was rubbing the log and stuffing box long before it broke. Another issue here is that the 6A6 that Mark put on is a lot bigger than the 6a he took off.
I'll post more pics soon. Then I have to get some real work done. Mark, I think I found your coupler key.

MAN - GA wrote: Then once I had this centered checked it all with the shaft in place before permanently mounting.

This is key.

1) Did you support the weight of the shaft and find where it spins freely in the strut, and make sure it corresponded to the center of the shaft log?

2) Did you confirm once you were permanantly mounting the strut (or even better, WHILE you were permanantly mounting the strut) that it was still in fact aligned to the log? Very small variations in strut location resulting from slop in the bolt holes will change alignment at the log significantly. Easily to the degree that we're seeing in the pictures above.

On our BFN, we dry fit the strut and tested the shaft with the log to make sure we were in the ballpark. When we permanently mounted it, we bedded it with 5200 and snugged up the bolts, and rechecked it. It required a few taps with a BFH to get the shaft perfectly centered in the log. Once tightened down all the way, we checked it again.

Im guessing one of the steps above got missed.

Fascinating. The strut on the '71-72 Skiers were most definitely not recessed- which shares the same hull and strut (6A) as the M16 and Ski Tique. Neither is the 6A strut on the ~74-75 Mustang17 parts boat I have. I dont recall how the strut was mounted on my '78 Tique- if a change was made, then it may have been recessed as well? Pete, whats the story on your Tique?

Back on topic: Mark, when you mounted the new strut, did you not get it aligned to the shaft log? That seems to be the implication here, right?

Pete's right- that hull should not have a recessed strut. If it came that way originally, you'd have gel under the strut- not bare glass. I wonder if someone moved the strut forward and then recessed it? Is there any evidence of previous repairs in the area? Old holes filled, etc? Inside the bilge may have more clues than the outside, with the bottom paint. Get a measurement from the edge of the transom to where the strut is mounted- I'll compare it to my boat.

Murph,
Somethings going on!! A 75 should not have a recessed strut!!! No wonder you couldn't get under a corner with the wire. Where's Mark? We need to here the full story.
This is not the end of the world but rather a small hill that needs to be climbed.

TRBenj wrote: SkiBear bought MAN-GA's boat.

Tim,
I'm sure glad you're around to fill in the gaps that I miss!

Mark,
Sorry but there was defiantly an alignment problem with your old boat. Fill us in on the problems if you care to. It may be beneficial to others doing a strut/shaft/engine alignment.

SkiBear bought MAN-GA's boat.

Stick around and you'll learn- we harass Pete any chance we get!