I have not removed my shaft yet, so hopefully some one will confirm or shoot down my plan. But I'll take a crack at this since no one has replide.
I have a 37 cc and plan on removing the shaft in the near future. I do not plan on removing the rudder and here is why.
By my estimation, the shaft length between the stuffing box and the transmission seems to be about 4'. The
propeller is only about 1.5' from the rudder. Based on this, one would need to remove the rudder, But....
First, I'm planning on removing the
propeller, which will allow the shaft to pass near the rudder. Second, I'm planning on sliding the cutlass bearing out the rear of the stern tube. As I understand it, the cutlass bearing is about 4" long and will slide aft along the shaft to be removed from the stern tube. This, along with removing the coulping and connections inside, should allow enough play in the shaft to pass right beside the rudder as it comes out.