Cutless bearing replacement questions

Jul 1, 2010
962
Catalina 350 Lake Huron
You're opening a can of worms by messing with the coupling, if you don't have to. Getting the screws out are only part of the problem. Then getting the coupling off the shaft could be easy...or hard. May still have to cut the shaft. After you remove it, it should be replaced with a new one anyhow. That will require having the shaft fit to the new coupling, and facing the new coupling before reinstalling it. Then it has to be aligned to the motor.
 

AXEL

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Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
I sent an email to Ken at WeekRProducts. He has a bunch of video's up about using the Strut Pro to remove the cutless bearing without removing the shaft. He will rent me the Strut Pro for a very reasonable price. I'm not sure if he wants me to post or not since the fee is not posted on his website. But it is very reasonable considering the time, trouble and expense of replacing the coupler, shaft and cutless bearing. This being a job I hope not to do more than once every 10 years or so.
I spent some more time working the screws that hold the shaft to the coupling yesterday. They've been soaking all week in PB Blaster, I applied heat to the coupling, nothing. They are not budging. The bolts holding the coupling to the tranny are lose which is good in case I have to do an alignment.
.
My next job will now be to get the prop off.
I will also look to buy the new cutless bearing. Any suggestion on brands and where to look?
 

AXEL

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Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
http://forums.sailboatowners.com/in...ge-cutlass-bearing.175971/page-2#post-1255771

Made one out of steel pipe, threaded rod and flange. Puch in instead of push out. No need to slit the tool, slit the old bearing instead. You are not going to reuse it anyway.
I like your idea. I had thought about that same exact thing, sawing the old bearing. I have a couple of questions if you wouldn't mind;
Where did you buy the 2 flanges?
One has a threaded flange for the pipe and the other would have to have a machined hole to allow the bearing through.
The pipe would also have to be machined to slightly less than the ID of the strut.
Did you do the machining?
 
Nov 14, 2013
238
Catalina 30 MkI 1983 TRBS Westbrook, CT
I did mine 2 years ago. Our cat 30 is a good bit older then yours but I'll briefly detail my experience in case you need to go this route. Our prop shaft was hopelessly frozen to the coupling so I decided to go all the way, new shaft and coupling along with a dripless. Cutting the shaft was surprisingly easy using an angle grinder. I pretty much followed mainsail's tutorial for replacing the cutlass which was, again, surprisingly easy. You'll see in my photos that someone had replace the bearing before and left a fairly deep saw gouge in the strut. It did not seem to effect the bearing however. Good luck, oh, and if no one has mentioned it yet make sure you keep the PB buster away from your transmission seals, nasty (yet very useful) stuff. Photos here >>> http://www.mrlew.com/SV-Trinity/Cutlass-Bearing
 

AXEL

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Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
I did not know that about PB blaster and tranny seals. Thank you!
And thanks for the post, good stuff. I am hopping not to have to go the full shaft, coupling replacement route.
 
Dec 13, 2010
123
Hake 32RK Red Bank
I did mine a year ago- hauled the boat because of other work and had the yard do it. Even with the right tools and experience they had trouble but they didn't have to remove the shaft and it didn't cost more than your estimate and I don't have to worry about it
 

AXEL

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Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
Good to know JC. I am hoping to by pass the coupling/shaft removal scenario and am now moving on to the pull the prop, buy, rent or make a bearing press maneuver.
 
Sep 25, 2008
1,096
CS 30 Toronto
Bought from Homedepot. Basically standard gas pipes. Same frange, cut a 1" slot and use a file to enlarge the hole to the diameter as the bearing. It's not that hard a material. You need to machine down the outside of the 1" pipe to fit inside the P-strute (about $30-$50 at machine shop). Gas pipe are slightly bigger than 1" inside diameters. I found that 1 slotted flange isn't good enough. It try to bend. If I need to do it again I'll make 2 slotted flages and cross over each other for strength.

Took me a few hours to file and slot the flange. About 30 minutes to replace the cutless bearing. No need to remove the shaft.
 

MitchM

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Jan 20, 2005
1,009
Nauticat 321 pilothouse 32 Erie PA
are you sure you have to remove the whole coupling and p shaft? can't you just remove the propeller, then press out the Cutless? if you really need to remove that shaft, my first piece of advice is to figure out what kind of coupling you have , contact the coupling manufacturer and get instructions on how to separate the coupling. for example on the Centa coupling , there were visible bolt - heads that were not budging. there were smaller jackbolts , hidden under plastic plugs, that were the mechanism to make the coupling come apart. i called Centa and they told me this, spent time on the phone with me and sent some nice diagrams too. Look up Centa and Vetus couplers on the internet and see how the designs work to take apart the coupling. following manufacturer instructions, I did not have to PB Blast anything to get my coupler bolts apart. ( i had to dissemble the coupling to remove the whole P shaft , because my p shaft had been been bent by a careless travelift operator.. so i needed to put in a whole new new p shaft. ) the shaft alone cost $650 ... i bought the top of line Cutless bearing tool then sold it at my cost after i finished the job. I sold it to a bright young independent boat yard mechanic by telling him how many Cutless bearing jobs he could do (3 an hour) with the fancy tool i was selling. i also retained lifetime borrow rights to my Strut Pro Cutless removal tool , which is indeed a beautiful piece of machinery.
 

AXEL

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Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
Mitch, I am leaning toward not removing the shaft and coupling. I found a place that will rent me a Bearing Buddy which is a scaled down Strut Pro for $50 or the Strut Pro for $100. This seems to me to be the way to go.
One thing I learned recently which I did not know is that it is a very good idea to do a "Lap Fit" when re-installing the prop. Funny no one mentioned this here. It's a process where you use a lapping compound and fair the prop to the tapered shaft. There are a couple of very good Youtube videos, looks pretty straight forward.
 
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MitchM

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Jan 20, 2005
1,009
Nauticat 321 pilothouse 32 Erie PA
that's a very fair price for that tool rental. (i bought the strut pro since could n't find one within 300 miles to borrow and got so disgusted i just spent the $ because it was already 4th of july.) (and i wasn't off the hard yet.) it's a good idea not to remove coupler and p-shaft if you don't have to. it took me a day just to figure out the Centa coupler dissembly on mine. lapping the shaft for the prop is also a very good idea and worth some drinks at the bar since you'll have a lot of the lapping compound left. .. also might as well do the zincs. ..
 
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AXEL

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Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
Update; I decided to go with renting the Bearing Buddy from Ken@weekendRProducts.com. He has been very easy to work with. The rental is only $50 plus shipping. He also provided the cutless bearing. I received the tool yesterday. It is very robust looking. A solid tool that looks perfect for getting this job done. I removed the prop last weekend. I bought a 2 prong gear puller (I have a 2 bladed prop). Got it at Harbor Freight for $20. After applying a little heat the prop came off without any trouble. Take your time with the set screws in the strut. One came out relatively easy the other's head stripped. I used a "star" shaped driver and taped it into the striped head. This worked like a charm and got it out. I've been spraying the strut/cutless bearing all week with PB Blaster. Tomorrow will be the big day. I'll post the results.
 
Sep 23, 2009
1,475
O'Day 34-At Last Rock Hall, Md
Maine sail has a great tutorial on his marine how to blog about lap fitting a prop to the shaft. Did mine last year. Went from about 30 to 80 % contact area. It took alot of turns. Keep your prop puller out as you may need it after final test fit. I sprayed zinc primer on the prop, shaft and strut which worked great. Only a few barnacles on the strut in the fall.
Good luck.
 

AXEL

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Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
Thanks nj, good to know. Lap fitting will be my next project.
 

AXEL

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Mar 12, 2008
359
Catalina C30 MKIII WEST ISLIP, NY
My last installment; I had great success using the rented Bearing Buddy (see 3 post above). My comment on this is, I had thought about making a similar tool. It looked simple enough and the materials seemed to be available at Home Depot or Lowes. If I would have built the tool the way I had envisioned it I would have run into problems. My boat is 16 years old and I assume the cutless bearing is original. It put up a good fight. Several times I could not turn the ratchet at all. I had to use MAP gas to heat the strut to get it going. I also had to use a pipe extension on the ratchet (something I did not feel comfortable doing). BTY, I soaked the bearing for weeks with PB Blaster. The Bearing Buddy is built very well and designed to handle this kind of load. Time, patience, heat and mussel, it eventually came out. Pressing the new one in was easier. Again the tool is designed to press straight and true. No problems or surprises, the new bearing went in straight.
I'm glad I decided to rent the tool. It wasn't a lot of money. In the long run it saved me quite a bit rather than removing the shaft or paying the yard to do it. Plus I learned something new.
 
May 7, 2011
281
C - 30 # 3573 Lake NormanNC formerly Bflo NY
When you search, search for both proper spelling (cutless) and the wrong one (cutlass).
Au contraire, mon ami. It's not "proper" vs "wrong" spelling.

CutLESS, is a trademarked name for ONE manufacturer (Johnson) of a cutLASS bearing (Morse and other manufacturers.) The precisely proper name, would be a "Cutless(r) DuraMax-brand cutlass bearing." Like Kleenex-brand tissue, but it being a whole lot more clunky to get out. ;-) Remember when our grandparents called every refrigerator, a "Frigidaire"? LOL.

Ken@WeekendRProducts.com
 
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