Need help pulling shaft

While the boat is out of the water I want to replace the stuffing box and pull the engine to work on motor mounts and generally clean it up. The connection is quite pitted and will likely need replacing. But before that I need to disconnect it. I know I need to remove the 4 bolts connecting to the transmission, but what is the single bolt going into the side of it? Can I work that loose and slide the shaft out? It would be much easier to work on it on a bench somewhere. Anyway any help would be nice.

Juice

In this situation I might first wire brush all that corrosion and remove as much as possible. Put an old rag or three underneath to catch the rusty bits.
I would hazard a guess that the bolt sticking out is a large "set screw" turned into a dimple on the shaft. Maybe.

Been reading forums tonight and someone suggested removing the prop (which I already have a new one and is on the replacement plan) and pull the engine and shaft all through inside the boat. I'll be back over Saturday to look and size it up again. But a good scrubbing is on the agenda for sure. I've been greasing it with some penetrating oil the last few days.

Square head bolt is a set screw

Loren is correct - the square headed bolt is a set screw that holds the coupling to the shaft. There are possibly two (there are on my 26-2), and may be wire tired together. You don't need to remove that bolt to get the shaft out of the boat - once the prop and zincs are off the shaft, and the packing in the log is loosened, the shaft should easily slide up into the cavity where your engine was.

It may be easiest to remove the bolts connecting the shaft coupling to the transmission by placing the transmission in neutral and rotating the coupling to whatever position is least difficult to access. Also, when cleaning up the corroded parts, remember that the coupling face and the transmission end are mating faces so avoid grinding. Wire brushing, or easy scotch-brite pads (brown or green) should be able to remove the corrosion products without removing significant amounts of material. You also may want to paint the coupling after cleaning to lessen future corrosion.

Best regards,
John

Last year I had to remove my shaft and stuffing box to repair my shaft log. After a LOT of aggravation I decided that even if I got the coupling off of the shaft that the 30 year old shaft would probably need to be replaced anyway. Five minutes with and angle grinder and cutoff wheel and the job was done.
One method of pressing the shaft out of the coupling is shown here.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/pss_shaft_seal

Good luck!

Pulling Engine with Shaft

907Juice said:

Been reading forums tonight and someone suggested removing the prop (which I already have a new one and is on the replacement plan) and pull the engine and shaft all through inside the boat. I'll be back over Saturday to look and size it up again. But a good scrubbing is on the agenda for sure. I've been greasing it with some penetrating oil the last few days.

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907Juice:
Not a good idea! What is normally akward, gets a lot more so, and could do damage to the seal mounting or struts. Not much room to manuever, and already need contortionist and acrobat experience.
Bob

Vagabond39 said:

907Juice:
Not a good idea! What is normally akward, gets a lot more so, and could do damage to the seal mounting or struts. Not much room to manuever, and already need contortionist and acrobat experience.
Bob

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yeah, that looks like a horrible idea. id probably end up breaking something.

thanks guys! that is what I thought I just thought id get help from the experts before i started over wrenching things and break something.

Juice

If you have to cut anything to remove it, I think I would start by slicing the coupler in half and separating it from the shaft...I havent checked pricing but I would bet a coupler is cheaper than a new shaft...

907Juice said:

thanks guys! that is what I thought I just thought id get help from the experts before i started over wrenching things and break something.

Juice

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So after a couple weeks of pb blaster and gently working the bolts, I think I have successfully stripped all the bolts holding both halves of the flange together. I'm to the point where I think I'm going to grind/sawzall the bolts off. I'm prob going to replace the flange so I'm not too worried. But if for some reason I'm able to save it by sandblasting and re painting it I don't want to ruin it if possible. The bolts go from the stern forward with the nut between the flange and the transmission. I tested it out today and I'm pretty sure I can cut the nuts off without any real difficulty. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any better ideas or suggestions.

Once i I get the prop shaft disconnected I can pull the engine replace my packing gland while it is out. I'm hoping for a late may splash so I need to get a move on it!

Juice

I would cut the flange with a Sawzall or grinder and move on. Use antiseize everywhere when reassembling and hope for the best next time. Strongly suggest replacing the coupling with a "split coupling" design. Dealing with a recalcitrant shaft coupling is the most frustrating job I've ever done on a boat. Even reading your post gives me unpleasant flashbacks - I've done this three times in the 26 years I've owned my boat.

Cutless/cutlass bearing or whatever... ericson 25+

Which one? I want to have it on hand when my prop shaft comes out this week. I am still trying to round up some parts and this one has me baffled. The shaft is 3/4in and it looks like the standard size is 3/4 x 1 1/4. des this sound right? On another note I planned on going brass but apparently there are non-metallic, duramax, and stave bearings. I know stave is the generic term but it still confuses me... thanks again

https://www.deepblueyachtsupply.com/johnson-cutlass-able-naval-brass-sleeve-bearing



juice

If you're sure the shaft is 3/4" diameter then that is the right bearing - there is only one stave bearing for 3/4" shafts. The bearings also seem to have standardized names by letter of the alphabet - my shaft is also 3/4" and the bearing I bought from another manufacturer (Morse) is the "albacore" model. Not sure how that happened.

I recently did this job on my E35. My stuffing box had been replaced with a dripless setup about 20 years ago, so it didn't look near as rough. The square headed bolts are set screws. The flange that is on the prop shaft is machined to fit nearly perfectly. I would recommend not cutting it if you can help it.

Try separating the flange from the transmission (4 bolts) and sliding the shaft out the boat about 2" or so. Just enough to take a look at the inside of the flange. It *should* have a hole in the center of it where it meets the propeller shaft.

What you can do is fit a small diameter deep well socket between the transmission flange and the prop shaft flange (remember that hole you were looking for in the prop flange). Once the socket is in place, tighten up the flange against the transmission again. This should work as a reverse puller and slowly press the prop shaft out of the flange.

The packing needs to be loose enough to move as you are doing this, but I was able to do it while my boat was in the water with my dripless system.

I needed to buy bolts of several different lengths to get the flange completely off, it was slow going, but I was able to clean up the flange after and reuse it.

-P

p.gazibara said:

What you can do is fit a small diameter deep well socket between the transmission flange and the prop shaft flange (remember that hole you were looking for in the prop flange). Once the socket is in place, tighten up the flange against the transmission again. This should work as a reverse puller and slowly press the prop shaft out of the flange.

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Personally, I would recommend against this. You can do major damage to the flange on your transmission this way. You'd be better off to just cut the shaft and replace it rather than running the risk of damaging your transmission.

MaineSail has an article on this on his site and rightly cautions against being too quick to use the socket approach. While it can work and some have achieved success doing it, the potential for damage is serious.

I'm buying a new coupling so I'll end up grinding off the old one.

907Juice said:

I'm buying a new coupling so I'll end up grinding off the old one.

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Good move.
As I think someone may have already mentioned, you'd be well served to buy a split coupling to aid in future removal.

When replacing my stuffing box years ago, I went with the "Last drop" instead of the traditional stuffing box.

NO REGRETS as getting to my stuffing box required downing a six pack of beer to reach! All kidding aside, the system we installed sure made life easier and it has lasted! ...A little more costly but worth it in aggravation and easy to install if you're yanking the engine and all!!

Best wises with your project!!
fair winds - kerry

I installed a Lasdrop many years ago too and will be replacing it with a regular shaft seal with Teflon packing if and when I have to remove my shaft again (which is hopefully never).

I never really trust those face seals, which will leak if schmutz (like the rusty gravelly dust that collect in the engine bilgewater) gets between the faces, and the rubber bellows are susceptible to bad things happening to them if they get soaked in solvent...like gasoline, which dissolved mine when my fuel tank sprung a leak in early spring. Fortunately it was before launch, so the boat didn't sink at the mooring, but it easily could have.

tenders said:

I installed a Lasdrop many years ago too and will be replacing it with a regular shaft seal with Teflon packing if and when I have to remove my shaft again (which is hopefully never).

I never really trust those face seals, which will leak if schmutz (like the rusty gravelly dust that collect in the engine bilgewater) gets between the faces, and the rubber bellows are susceptible to bad things happening to them if they get soaked in solvent...like gasoline, which dissolved mine when my fuel tank sprung a leak in early spring. Fortunately it was before launch, so the boat didn't sink at the mooring, but it easily could have.

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I am am reinstalling an entire new packing gland like the original. I understand that they may require a little more maintenance but this type has already made the boat last 35 years. Hard to argue with that.