Shafting tollerance

Rick, if by "out of round" he means it is bent, .013" is excessive. Personally, I like to see the shaft to be straight within .001". From what I have seen .003" seems to be the boat industry standard as a "go no-go" measurment. I would not run a shaft that was bent by .013". You could damage other parts of your drive train. A lot of machine shops can straighten a shaft saving you the cost of a new one. You should take your shaft and shop around at local machine shops. The shop does not have to specialize in marine work to straighten a shaft. Tell the shop you need it within .003" garanteed and ask for an estimate. Tell them if they can't get it within .003" you don't need it. Don't let them try to straighten it, get it within some lesser tolerance, and then charge you anyway. It does not hurt to ask if you can see them check it for straightness. Good shops will let you watch. (I owned and ran a shop in Houston for 20 years.)

By the way, I've seen new shafts on Ebay for a lot less than $400.00. I bought a new shaft for my '68 for about $250.00.

Rick:

I paid $145.00 + $25.00 (second taper) for a double taper 1" shaft of custom length. I also had to pay $110.00 for a new billit aluminum coupler for the tapered shaft. So, I would bet that a single taper shaft can be had for about $145.00 (51" long) if you shop around. My shaft came from McDurmon Marine Distributing via my prop guy.