'74 25' Sea Raider rudder and prop shaft

[Granny Knot 2]

Newbie Trojan owner here, I've never owned a straight drive before but it seems simple enough . Trouble is I hit something (a deadhead I assume) at about 8 knots, resulting in a slight bend in the prop shaft, chewed up the prop and bent the rudder.
I removed the rudder last weekend and can see that it's bent back and off to the side a bit. Can this be straightened or is it toast?
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[Danny Bailey]

If you have access to a hydraulic press it's fairly easy to straighten. You may have to remove the shaft from the rudder. If so sand the paint off to find the brass pin that holds the shaft in the rudder, drill it out and twist the shaft out. I bent one of mine worse than yours two seasons ago and straightened it with no ill effects so far.

[Granny Knot 2]

Thanks Danny that's reassuring to know. My next question is what secures the rudder vertically? There was a 3/16" bolt through the shaft at the top and a 1/4" bolt through the tiller, the bolt where the tiller clamps to the rudder shaft was seized and loose.
Kyle Blackmore

[chucka]

>What secures the rudder vertically? The shaft is pressed into the rudder casting, and there is usually a horzontal pin pressed through the rudder and shaft to prevent any motion. That's why Danny said to sand the rudder to find and remove the pin. (Push it out with a punch or drill it out as a last resort.) You can expect a B$^%#tch of a time pulling the rudder off the shaft. The blade was probably heated to expand it when it was pressed on. The surfaces were probably clean and greased at the time. Now almost 40 years later let's just say they are intimately joined. One approach is to imerse the shaft in ice water to keep it cool and heat the casting, but Bronze is pretty conductive so it won't be easy to heat it up very much, the rudder blade will suck the heat away from the hole where the shaft is.

What diameter is that shaft? I have a spare that you might be able to use. I bought a couple of rudders a few years ago from a marine consignment shop to get all the parts I needed to upgrade from a 1" to 1-1/4 in shaft on my '74 F-26.

I have this rudder sitting in my basement and would be willing to sell it for a reasonable price - try $40 (and you pay the actual shipping cost from RI.) That would be for the rudder and shaft only. The tiller arm shown in the photo has been removed because I used it on my boat. I believe that both the shaft & rudder are bronze. They have a bit of surface corrosion, but nothing that won't clean up with a wirebrush and some elbow grease.

This shaft is 1-1/4 in diameter. I marked some dimensions on the photo the blade is about 14-1/2 in tall and 12 in fore & aft. The shaft extends 20 inches from the top of the rudder blade. There is a keyway halfway up the shaft, where the tiller arm is shown in the photo. If it's the right diameter and you find out what it would cost to straighten your shaft, let me know if this might be a cost effective alternative for you. I've had it in my basement for about 3 years, so there is no rush, it's not likely to go anywhere.
Chuck

[chucka]

FYI,

FYI - here is a link to a previous post (2005) that includes a photo of my original rudder and discusses how and why I replaced it.

http://www.trojanboats.net/wforum/viewtopic.php?t=85

Chuck

PS another Trojan F26 owner bought my original rudder.

[Granny Knot 2]

Thanks for the offer Chuck, I'll look into the cost for straightening as well as balancing the propshaft. I saw in your old thread that there was a bronze safety collar with a split pin securing it. This is what I was referring to when I asked what supports the shaft vertically( or more importantly what keeps it from dropping out of the bottom of the hull), my shaft doesn't have that. Does it sit on top of the stuffing box. Was the stuffing box supposed to be loosened before the shaft came out? I tried with the little adjustable wrenches that came with the boat but it was very tight and the shaft dropped right out anyways.
When I go to remove the propshaft is there any tips, tricks I should know about. Never been there,haven't done that yet. Should the prop and shaft be balanced as a unit or does it matter. How many questions can I ask

[chucka]

This photo shows the rudder assembly. The stuffing box isn't shown here. I took the photo when I was checking that everything fit before I re-installed the stuffing box. I labeled the components to help make it clear. The safety ring is pinned throught the shaft and the tiller arm is clamped to the shaft with a bolt. Both the pin and the bolted joint would have to fail before the rudder post could drop through the stuffing box.

The other thing you asked about was getting the prop shaft out of the boat. The biggest challenge I had getting the prop shaft out of the boat was that I wasn't able to get the coupling that connects the shaft to the transmission off the shaft inside the boat. It is a very tight press fit. There are techniques for pulling the coupling off the shaft, but I couldn't make it work. I didn't have the right tools or the patience to work in that awkward space. I ended up lifting up the engine and pulling the shaft out from inside the boat, rather than removing the coupling and sliding the shaft out through the bottom of the boat.

Once I had the shaft out of the boat I managed to pull off the coupling (using a pipe hammer technique). That is sliding a heavy section of black pipe over the shaft and, letting it bang against the coupling to push the coupling off the shaft. I heated the coupling to expand it and kept the shaft cool with ice water through the process. It took a lot of hammering to get the coupling off the old shaft.

I sent the coupling off to the company that supplied my new shaft to have it trued on the shaft and they said the old coupling inner diameter was too big to fit on the shaft, so I bought a new coupling after all that. They pressed the new coupling onto the shaft and balanced and trued it as a unit. I had a prop re-furbisher go over my prop (PropScan), and just installed it on the shaft after re-installing the shaft in the boat. I never heard of anyone balancing the prop on the shaft.

Take a good look a your stuffing box and the cutlass bearing while you have the prop shaft out. (or before you pull out the shaft in the case of the cutlass bearing.) I ended up replacing my cutlass bearing a few years after the shaft replacement and had to go thorugh a lot of the same steps over again. It would have been much easier to do it all at once, but as I recall, at that time I was dealing with so many projects, I couldn't keep adding one more thing or I wouldn't have gotten the boat in the water that season. Sometimes you just have to do as much as you can and take your lumps later.



Good Luck!
Chuck