Drive Shaft Wear

[weephee]

Hello Below are two pictures of the drive shaft from my Columbia. The first picture show the worst wear which is where the stuffing box is located and the second picture shows wear where the cutlass bearing is located. Question is, how much wear is acceptable. If the shaft needs to be replaced, could I replace the black tube with a longer piece thereby locating the stuffing box up the shaft to where there is no wear. I don't have a micrometer so I can't measure the exact wear. Thanks

[erps]

The wear at the cutlass bearing doesn't look excessive to me. The wear the packing gland looks like it's getting a little rough, which will lead to excessive wear to the packing material and leaks. Your idea of adjusting the length of the log tube sounds viable to me, if you have room between the hull and the shaft coupler. Otherwise, depending on the length and size it's not too unreasonable for a machine shop to machine you another shaft. We had a 7/8th shaft machined for an Islander 28 we owned for under $300.

[weephee]

I decided to replace the shaft. Cost to have a new one made was only $150.00. Piece of mind was worth that alone. With a new cutlass bearing and repacked stuffing box this part of the project should be good. Finally starting to put things back together rather than constantly disassembling and removing. You get a real high when a project finally starts to come together.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by weephee

I decided to replace the shaft. Cost to have a new one made was only $150.00. Piece of mind was worth that alone. With a new cutlass bearing and repacked stuffing box this part of the project should be good. Finally starting to put things back together rather than constantly disassembling and removing. You get a real high when a project finally starts to come together.

You can hardly buy an Aqualoy shaft blank for $150.0 let alone a new coupling?

If you have a solid one piece coupling you'll want to have it properly fitted and faced to the new shaft. In my experience, 9 times out of 10, the old coupling can not be re-used due to sloppy fit issues. It should be a light tap to light press fit when it goes on and off the shaft. The worst the fit variance should be is .001". Most good shops hand fit them into the ten thousandths range.

[weephee]

Yes, that is what he did. He had the old shaft and the flange and fitted it exactly as you have said. This machinist is amazing. He is from Bavaria and works alone in his machine shop. He had done a lot of work for me and never let me down in any way. Thanks for your reply.