93 nautique drive shaft removal

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of trying to replace my strut bearings since there was some play in the shaft that I noticed while replacing the propeller. I figured they're the original strut bearings on a 30+ year old boat with 450 hours.

I dropped the rudder that had a tiny bit of play in it but I was hoping I could put a little grease on that, repack it, and call it a day.

I need some guidance on what all these parts are on the shaft and the order of operations for removal. I removed the screws with 9/16 bolts connecting the coupler to the transmission. What is the silver metal band around the shaft that seems to have two set screws with caulking? Also there are the two screws with a wire tie between them? I noticed the shaft has a keyed slot similar to the propeller as well.

Any insight would be awesome, thanks!

https://ibb.co/BVPzyKD5

Here's some insight in the link below 

I did see about the ARE shaft but was going to see if my current one was bent or not.

You're making me second guess this endeavor, but I was reading there should be extremely little play and I was looking out for longevity of the transmission. I could just throw the rudder back on with new packing and call it a day.

Here is a video I just took of the current shaft play. I'm the second owner of this boat and have only had it a few months. From what I know, it was never taken in salt water.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M0bVinAQvZRZY-r9CRMKQ8zDNYl8ZbSk/view?usp=drivesdk

It currently has those bolts removed but I didn't even attempt to pull that coupler off. Id say that's the same amount of play before I disconnected anything though.

The other thing I was going to check on to decide if I should buy the two part shaft was if this current shaft is worn somehow where it contacts the bushings. Low engine hours, but 30 years of unknown.

I'm not sure if you remember but you got my boat running after I troubleshot it for like a whole month after installing a new carb. It was surging like crazy. Even went so far as to switch to a DUI. Never fixed it. You saw in the video I posted I had the fuel pump overflow connected to the carb where it shouldn't be. Boat ran perfect after disconnecting it. Thanks again for that!

Looking at your wiggling the shaft video, it looks like you lapped the shaft where the prop sits and it looks like the distance between the lapped area ending and the strut is not nearly 1 1/2 inches.

That's not bad on the strut clearance.

FI,

Thanks for the info. That eases me with knowing they probably didn't replace the shaft because that would make me worried as to why a shaft was replaced in such a low hour engine. The collar does have the two detents on the shaft the set screws go into.

When pushing the flange off the shaft, I was going to do the longer bolt tightening method with a socket between transmission and shaft to push it out. Before attempting to remove it, should I be making any marks or taking notes anywhere for positions prior to removal?

Removing the transmission and sliding the shaft forward out of the strut is a pretty easy way to replace the bushing.  Removing the transmission is pretty straightforward.

I did not expect it to be this hard to push the shaft out of the coupler. Pressing this socket i have moved it about 1/8". The bolts are beyond what I can hand tighten and I've been carefully using an impact to tighten them about a 1/16th of a turn. The bolts are about to be sticking out the back too long to where it won't rotate, hitting the hex bolts going into the transmission. I could replace them one at a time with smaller bolts and continue on with tightening these bolts.

Am I going to do any damage?

Any other tips?

I've tried tapping it with a dead blow. I put the prop nut on under the hull and tried tapping a wooden dowel into that with downward force away from the transmission with the bolts also pressing it out. No luck..

https://ibb.co/9mZSZW8V
https://ibb.co/XxWw5TYb

Right about now you should be calling that number that showed up in your PM in box 

I think that off in the distance, I hear the faint sound of an angle grinder.......his choice 

That's what he's doing except he's using an angle grinder instead of a reciprocating saw

Nice, just cut it out, you'll love the dual taper shaft just on installation alone, imagine paying a shop for this work, bohze moi !

Keno, ugh! capital F! . I'll update the never again, again thread after i find some stuff out.
What hull comes after nwz ?

Mucho thankso JQ