Harmonic prop puller?

Ralph Johnstone · Jan 4, 2015

Tally Ho said:
I always thought hitting the shaft could do damage to the transmission.....

This thing looks great ............. for the manufacturer :dance:.

I would suggest pure snake oil for the following:

The prop, nut, shaft, and cotter pin look brand new, never seen water. Everything comes apart so nicely.

The masses are wrong. For those blows to release the prop, the mass of the shaft, transmission, and engine would have to be small and accelerate rapidly away from the prop

. And, the mass of the prop would have to be large not react to the blows i.e. stay put.

I'd recommend staying with the tried and true gear puller, heat, and plenty of swearing.

woodster · Jan 4, 2015

Tally Ho said:
Saw this harmonic prop puller video....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXcmT_ftlSM

I always thought hitting the shaft could do damage to the transmission.....

Any one have any experience with one of these, or comments on whether or not they are better/worse than a C-style puller?

Greg

it will if you have it bolted to the transmission cuppler .... its just an old mechanics trick of double nutting and hitting the nut with a hammer to shake it loose but make sure your shaft is free of the gear box or you will damage it

JerryA · Jan 4, 2015

Works for props too?

This is a tried & true method for removing lawnmower flywheels as well. Pretty typical method for removing something on a tapered shaft. Not sure if it's best for props, but if the shaft has a rubber coupler it's probably OK.

JerryA

uncledom · Jan 4, 2015

This works on vibration and not on real force if you do it right. You need not hit it hard. The idea is to get the shaft to "ring" and the vibrations, or harmonics will separate the two items. You are definitely not trying to accelerate the shaft faster than the prop to separate them. I had a buddy who had every tool on the planet so he handed me a brand new Snap On never used ball joint puller. I didn't want to make the first mark in it so I found a suitable sized bearing race put the A arm assembly in a vise with the race so the ball joint had an open space to be pressed to. I put moderate pressure on the vice handle and then hit the vice with the smallest ball peen hammer he had. I used varying but not hard blows and the the ball joint popped on about the seventh or eighth hit. He was amazed and has never used that puller to date.
BTW these won't work on a lot of feathering and specialty props as the nuts are recessed and you can't fit the unit on the end of the shaft.

fstbttms · Jan 4, 2015

Ralph Johnstone said:
I'd recommend staying with the tried and true gear puller, heat, and plenty of swearing.

A gear puller is not the right tool for the job. A prop puller is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q3ntQF_Csk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3WaOWestWQ

Chris Patterson · Jan 5, 2015

When he started tapping on it with that dollar store adjustable wrench I just stopped caring. Please don't fall for this.

fstbttms · Jan 5, 2015

Chris Patterson said:
When he started tapping on it with that dollar store adjustable wrench I just stopped caring. Please don't fall for this.

He was simply tapping the cotter pin out of the shaft. The harmonic puller wasn't even installed yet.

RichH · Jan 5, 2015

uncledom said:
This works on vibration and not on real force if you do it right. You need not hit it hard. The idea is to get the shaft to "ring" and the vibrations, or harmonics will separate the two items. You are definitely not trying to accelerate the shaft faster than the prop to separate them. I had a buddy who had every tool on the planet so he handed me a brand new Snap On never used ball joint puller. I didn't want to make the first mark in it so I found a suitable sized bearing race put the A arm assembly in a vise with the race so the ball joint had an open space to be pressed to. I put moderate pressure on the vice handle and then hit the vice with the smallest ball peen hammer he had. I used varying but not hard blows and the the ball joint popped on about the seventh or eighth hit. He was amazed and has never used that puller to date.
BTW these won't work on a lot of feathering and specialty props as the nuts are recessed and you can't fit the unit on the end of the shaft.

MOST EXCELLENT POST, uncledom !!!!!
Yup, this the way its done on almost all industrial and SAE automotive applications with tapered shafts: Ball joints, steering knuckles, shaft couplings, etc. etc. You really dont have to hit the shaft end with a hammer, can be done by just hitting the 'hub', etc. while simultaneously 'prying' the hub along the tapered shaft. Before 'metrification', almost the entire machine tool industry of the world was 'held together' by the friction developed in a 10° taper.

Chris Patterson · Jan 5, 2015

That's what I meant. A #9 Klien...cotter pin puller..or 12" adjustable..

Ralph Johnstone · Jan 5, 2015

fstbttms said:
A gear puller is not the right tool for the job. A prop puller is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q3ntQF_Csk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3WaOWestWQ

You haven't seen my gear puller for solid props! ! !

fstbttms · Jan 5, 2015

Chris Patterson said:
That's what I meant. A #9 Klien...cotter pin puller..or 12" adjustable..

So your point is the video and product should be entirely discounted because the guy tapped on the cotter pin with a tool that doesn't meet your approval?

fstbttms · Jan 5, 2015

Ralph Johnstone said:
You haven't seen my gear puller for solid props! ! !

Almost any prop (fixed, feathering or folding) can be pulled with a standard prop puller. And you've never tried using a gear puller underwater.

Chris Patterson · Jan 5, 2015

Ralph Johnstone · Jan 5, 2015

fstbttms said:
And you've never tried using a gear puller underwater.

a) I own a fancy gear puller so I'm not about to buy a prop puller.

b) Don't believe in pulling my prop in the water

c) the video and product should be entirely discounted because it's a scam. Everything shown was new, spotless, and had never seen water before the demonstration.

uncledom · Jan 5, 2015

Ralph Johnstone said:
a) I own a fancy gear puller so I'm not about to buy a prop puller.

b) Don't believe in pulling my prop in the water

c) the video and product should be entirely discounted because it's a scam. Everything shown was new, spotless, and had never seen water before the demonstration.

Ralph I agree that the prop in that video could have been removed by hand most likely, I know for a fact that "prop knockers" have been around a very long time. My service marina uses them ALL the time. They have more mass than the one in the video and I own one. They don't work on my feathering prop for which I use a flat bearing plate behind the prop and put the two fingered puller to the plate. I still tap with a small hammer to induce vibration to allow the prop to pop off with the least amount of force.

fstbttms · Jan 5, 2015

Ralph Johnstone said:
a) I own a fancy gear puller so I'm not about to buy a prop puller.

Fair enough. Still not as easy to use as a prop puller.

Ralph Johnstone said:
b) Don't believe in pulling my prop in the water

It's your dime. No reason to ever haul a boat to remove or install ANY prop however.

Ralph Johnstone said:
c) the video and product should be entirely discounted because it's a scam. Everything shown was new, spotless, and had never seen water before the demonstration.

Doesn't mean the harmonic puller doesn't work. It's only a sales demonstration.

Ralph Johnstone · Jan 5, 2015

fstbttms said:
Doesn't mean the harmonic puller doesn't work. It's only a sales demonstration.

Colour me biased but I'm from Missouri

.

uncledom · Jan 5, 2015

Ralph Johnstone said:
Colour me biased but I'm from Missouri .

want to see a Missouri mule?

Harmonic prop puller?

.

.

Attachments

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.