Cutlas Bearing Replacement ??

[JK_Boston_Catalina310]

In most cases, unless the shaft has bad wear, the shaft can usually be re-used. However when checked for true many of them are not in tolerance. Straightening a small dia shaft can often cost more in labor than a new shaft. Every shaft and coupling I remove gets sent off to the machine shop for a fit & face, full inspection for straightness and any other "tune ups" required to fix previously done inappropriate work such as lack of "spotting" or lack of "relieved" key ways...

9.8 times out of 10 the removed coupling has lost tolerance for a "proper" interference fit. Problem is that there are a number of machine shops who do not "properly" fit a coupling and it can lead to issues like the photo above, or worse the shaft falls out or the sloppy fit ruins the shaft making re-use impossible. There are at least two shops in my area that I will no longer use due to sloppy work and improper machining practices.

Here's a machinist who actually "gets it" and does top quality work. My last customer who ordered a "mail order" shaft incurred $300.00 in additional work to the shaft before it was even installable. The mail order company insisted the coupling that slid freely over the shaft and with "slop" was acceptable. To some shops that level of work is "acceptable" to them.... Very sad...

Kudo's to this guy who GETS IT RIGHT! I have been harping on the details of this for years and this guy sums it all up in one video. If only all machine shops worked to his level....

As I mentioned earlier probably 95% of the work out there is done acceptably well it's the 5% that makes everyone look bad..

Mainesail,

Thanks again for posts like this. I was never really sure what "fit and face" referred to but knew it was something that you and others recommended. Now I have a much better understanding.

Thank you,

Jesse

 

[Rag Bagger]

Thanks for the wealth of information.

 

[drazlou]

When I bought my 1994 C30 last year it had a rubber shaft seal like a grease seal. I don't know if the boat came with this seal or if the PO added it In any case it had been leaking for a long time and the shaft had been slinging salt water onto the engine, transmission and coupling. The boat yard tried to pull the coupling off the shaft and finally gave up and cut it off. I had them replace the shaft, coupling, cutlass bearing and install a dripless shaft seal. It was expensive but at least that's one area I won't have to deal with for a while.