Shaft Alignment

Ok, so I was falsely hoping that my new shaft would arrive and it would just drop into place with no fuss. That's not the case.

I removed the rudder to get it out of the way. With that gone, the shaft sits to the port side of the log naturally. I can move it starboard and center it inside the log with a little pressure. If I push it up to the trans coupler, I can see that the port side has more than .003" gap from the feeler gauge.





So, I have a couple questions for tomorrow's attempt at getting this aligned.

1. If it takes pressure to center the shaft in the log, does that mean the strut is bent?
2. Is the alignment based on the results of putting the couplers together without the nuts and reading the gap, or is it based on the shaft resting naturally in the log? (does that make sense?
3. How the hell do I move this engine? I tried loosening the lock nuts, kroil, a bottle jack, prybar, and praying. I cant get the thing to budge. Ive done everything short of pulling the engine and I cant get it to move.



Sigh..........

I removed the adjustment part from the eng/tranny to be able to work on the shop table. Mine took heat from torch and petes home brew to get them to move. I will say when I started I didn't think they were worthy of salvage. A little time proved otherwise. It also made the alignment much easier.
Can the strut be aligned first so as to make it fit the thru hull fitting better?

So how does one align a shaft while on the boat?

Chris,
All I'd like to add to the great advice above is the shaft doesn't need to be perfectly centered in the log. If I had to give you a figure, I'd say get it within a 1/16". Then, if the strut and log isn't kicked port or starboard, the engine will end up sitting pretty centered.

Chris,
Yes, 4200 is a good choice.

Chris I found this on another site:

Re: Clean-up of 3M 4200 and 5200
This is the proper product. 3M 08984 General purpose adhesive cleaner.

http://www.repaintsupply.com/pd_general_purpose.cfm#

Buy it at a automotive paint store, Don't buy it at West Marine. You will save $7 to $8 on a qt. A qt will last a long time. It has a little spout that goes on the can.

Frankenotter wrote: What is the preferred method of removing old 4200 without scratching the gel in the strut port?

I used mineral spirit. Soaked the strut base and bolts in a pan. Worked like a charm!

Here is the result of centering the shaft in the log.

It looks like the entire engine needs to shuffle laterally to port. Would you guys agree?


This is the pic of the current configuration attached to the coupler. You can see the shaft is on the right side of the log by about 1/8".


I'm planning to tackle the engine mounts tomorrow and I'd be curious to see if you guys agree with the assessment before i go for it. There is one bolt on the starboard / aft/ lower trans attach point that is basically impossible to get a tool on. Any ideas for that bad boy?

Chris

Chris, the current motor mounts, is the engine centered in between them? Maybe the previous owner made some adjustments and now since the drive shaft is centered, your having your engine/coupler misalignment. Just a thought.

I wasn't doing all of the above tests by myself so I couldn't see what was happening to the strut as I did this. Tomorrow I'll have a helper and check it again. I left one srew in the shaft to use as a pivot, but maybe it got caught in something. I'll check the strut for straightness with some squares when I take it off.

It the base is flat on the table then I would say yes the strut is tweeked. Any measureable deviation from fron of log to back or is that similar on both sides? Which would mean it is only bent to one side and at least not twisted and bent. Sure seems fixable.

Has anyone successfully straightened a strut?

If so, how?

Donald the cutlass is already replaced.

Thanks Gary. I don't want to tell you what I tried to straighten the promo strut. It didn't work.

Chris - I fixed one myself. I was lucky to have a friend with a fixture to hold it. Otherwise would be very difficult to hold it solid & push on it with a jack. I recommend farming this out.

Strut Straighten

SNobsessed wrote: Chris - I fixed one myself. I was lucky to have a friend with a fixture to hold it. Otherwise would be very difficult to hold it solid & push on it with a jack. I recommend farming this out. Strut Straighten

Chris that's a really cool setup you have there. I'm tempted to make one just to have in the future.

Peter Eader, fox lake was closed today. I have the strut for the promo that I might take to them if I don't try it myself.

For what it's worth, I called a ton of prop shops and marinas today. 80% of them thought I was crazy and didn't think a strut could be straightened. 10% thought they could try it but it would be expensive and not garunteed to be straight. The last 10% had insane requests like shimming the engine and re drilling the motor mounts. One guy said he could fix it but it wasn't worth his time unless he could do more work to my boat. I guess all I need to do is go break something so I can take it to him and allow him to rip me off?

I ended up sending it to Delta Propeller (site sponsor) They knew what I wanted right away and said they can do it for $65 in one week. Done. Just a heads up, he said we (CCF) no longer get the 10% discount.

Chris