shaft wobble

Heefus · Post by **Heefus** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:00 pm

Well, she started tapping again

At about 1900 rpms she makes a racket, but will stop hitting at anything over that. The shaft is only 1" OD, so it will self center once the rotational speed picks up.

So I am left with a delimma:

I know that I can safely run her, on plane, without the shaft hitting anything. I also know that I can just putt, on the starboard engine, and only use the port engine for docking. I spoke with the PO, he lets me use his lift for repairs, and he said I am welcome to bring her over anytime to move the strut and align it properly.

I believe I will pull her again, as I plan on fishing into December, but it will have to wait until late July/early August as I will be traveling quite a bit this month.

I am also tossing around the idea of re-powering to new 5.7 Mercs, possibly fuel injected, and rebuilding the starboard Vdrive while I am at it. I guess I just really need to decide if this is going to be a 5 year boat, or a 10 year boat. If she is gonna be a 5 year, then everything stays, as-is, and I just maintain as necessary. A 10 year plan gets new engines and drives.

Dunno

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:13 pm

You said:
"At about 1900 rpms she makes a racket, but will stop hitting at anything over that. The shaft is only 1" OD, so it will self center once the rotational speed picks up."

That real makes no sense to me , Is it only making the noise in gear ? if so I would try aligning the engine / trans to the shaft

Heefus · Post by **Heefus** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 5:04 pm

prowlersfish wrote:"At about 1900 rpms she makes a racket, but will stop hitting at anything over that. The shaft is only 1" OD, so it will self center once the rotational speed picks up."

That real makes no sense to me , Is it only making the noise in gear ? if so I would try aligning the engine / trans to the shaft

Since the shaft is narrow, any wobble will even out as rotation speed is increased.

The skeg is not aligned properly with the thru-hull so I will have to move it. I adjusted the engine position, as best as I could, to compensate for the skeg.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 6:33 am

Is this the same noise you thought has a engine noise ? What is the shaft hitting ?

Heefus · Post by **Heefus** » Sat Jul 09, 2011 10:44 am

prowlersfish wrote:Is this the same noise you thought has a engine noise ? What is the shaft hitting ?

The same engine, but I figured out that the actual engine noise was a leaky exhaust gasket.

The shaft is hitting the bronze thru hull plate at the underside of the hull.

larryeddington · Post by **larryeddington** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:26 pm

FYI just in case you want to try it, I did and the drive saver biscut between transmission and shaft will not work on Paragon V-drives. I is too big and hits the bottom of the transmission. Apparently it only works only on straight through drives. I do not know of any alternative that works.

Just for information in case you wanted to try it as part of your fix. I have an F-28 as well.

pk · Post by pk » Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:32 pm

IÂ´m not sure, but what is a "skeg"???

larryeddington · Post by **larryeddington** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:54 pm

He is refering to the strut that supports the shaft and contains the cutlass bearing.

pk · Post by pk » Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:36 pm

Ooooo....!! I see! Thanks.

Heefus · Post by **Heefus** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:58 pm

Update:

Took the offending shaft to the local machine shop this week. It is .003 out of line, right up by the flange end. I could see it move while on the lathe.

I am going to go ahead and have a new one made. It doesn't seem like much, mathematically, but seeing it wobble on the lathe is a whole other matter