Shaft Alignment Question

A little wiggle, with easy steering sound OK to me,

I purchased my ARE double taper shaft from Ron Tanis at skiboatpartsonline.com. Was a good price and shipped pretty quick.

Also Mr Tanis spent some time with me on the phone answering a bunch of questions and making sure I placed my order correctly. His YouTube videos were also very helpful.

Here's more reading in the link below

MarkVNomad wrote: and of course the prop is still on the other end of the shaft, any thoughts on getting it off? I appreciate you experienced guys taking time to respond, like others before me, I am grateful.

one quick other question, discussing rudder or prop should one open a separate topic, or can I just throw that out there right here?

If you can afford it I highly recommend the double taper shaft! I was glad I sprung for it.

Ken, thank you for the encouragement, it really worked for me, in light of your insight here I am now a part of a select group of people who have experienced being lucky. My rudder as well as the drive shaft showed some movement and so after reading this post I felt encouraged to embark on this journey... Removed the rudder yesterday (no grease zerk), not too much difficulty, apart from the fact that the rudder couldn't drop as it didn't clear the trailer...after I had rigged an engine hoist to lift the boat at the aft lift ring, it was able to come out and then started on the coupler, here is where I am truly lucky seeing as my Sport has the interference fit style, I now have mastered the art of stripping the threads on my bolts and can also boast that I was able to stretch them, all 4 of them,... to no avail, I even was able to do a real number on the 2 nuts I had inserted instead of a socket, as that would have required me to get longer bolts with fine thread, needless to say that I made the trip to Home Depot and acquired various lengths of 3/8 bolts with fine threads, now that I was able to insert a hardened socket I was really getting some where, there were some really loud snapping noises a few times and finally I experienced true joy as I was able to see true movement of the coupler along the shaft, the bolts had to be changed several time as they would start to interfere with the bolts on the tranny..I am now the proud owner of a drive shaft with coupler moved at least 1.5" , I will move the remaining 1/2 " tomorrow once I change to another socket once again....as I was going through this life changing experience I remembered your encouraging words many times, and actually all humor aside, I really did, but I really started feeling slightly depressed anticipating the future assembly process of the coupler....will this involve a torch for the coupler and a freezer for the shaft, I have not even really been worrying about how to remove the prop...

We just got back from a 2 hour ride around the lake (after adjusting packing, etc). All was good! No extra vibration that I could tell. 

Trey,

Trey,

Richard,

Trey,

Everything is lapped up nice and and installed!

Now I am reinstalling the rudder. It’s been a while since I disassembled it so how tight should that bolt on top that threads into the rudder be tightened? If I tighten it too much it locks up the steering so I’m thinking snug it up and that’s what the safety wire is for?

TG3 wrote: KENO wrote: In your situation, I wouldn't let the fact that I didn't lap the coupling bother me one little bit, but that's your choice  If ARE wanted it lapped ( or thought it needed it) they would have done it before they sent it to you or sent some lapping compound with the shaft and coupling. I can agree with this logic. I am going to proceed with lapping the prop end and be done.

SNobsessed wrote: I would think, with both being machined at same shop, the tapers would match.