new beta in place..

[groundhogyh]

Hi all,
Thanks for your help so far. Sorry i got exasperated the other night. Felt much better after putting some talcum powder on my diaper rash.... lol.

Anyway, yesterday the new beta 14 was placed in the boat. I have also now read the manual and have a couple of questions.

The mounting design drew my attention first.
Looks like what you find on the bottom of tables in the restaurant that wobble.
Can these locking nuts on threaded rod be relied on to stay put forever and hold a 0.005 inch tolerance between the shaft-gearbox? I think i saw 0.005 inches as the target that must be met.

My dripless shaft seal has worked fine since I have owned the boat. Should I reuse this?
I would like to know which model i have. You squirt grease into the zerk or nipple.

Besides the shaft, what else should be replaced in the drive train?

Alignment procedure or tips?
What are these cones?

thanks,
gh [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

 

[reefmagnet]

The rubber will settle over time, but what other types of mount are
available? I checked mine after a couple of weeks once in the water and
there was no discernible movement. I'm about to do the 25 hour service on
the gearbox so will check again and then thereafter every year (with
gearbox / seal service). TBH I'm not that worried, the small clearance of
the Vega tube to shaft aside, as many, many boats would be running around
with installations that are never checked I would reckon. I think the best
advice I could give would be to make sure the alignment is as good as
possible to start with, and then check it again after a few days on the
water (although it seems the alignment doesn't really change on the Vega
between in and out of water).

Depending on condition, the coupling might be worth replacing as well. For
the relatively small extra cost, I'd replace the gland, but then again I
don't know the condition of yours. The one thing I would add is a "shaft
collar". One of these little do-dads, installed in the right spot, will
stop the shaft exiting stage left if it comes loose from the coupler and
can also potentially stop the seal coming all the way off the end of the
stern tube if that works loose as well. My boat has no less then 10 screws
holding down the cockpit floor - and there is no other access to the rear
of the engine - so I consider the consequences of loosing the shaft or seal
and the associated inrush of water to be a downright very-bad-thing!

Oh, and maybe the stern bearing as well while the shaft is out.

 

[stevebirch2002]

Hi GH

I installed my Beta 12 years ago and never had a problem, dont worry! Did you also use a Centaflex coupling, makes installation so much easier and reliable.

Send me an email off group and I will send the install instructions.

Cheers

Steve BFrom: Jeff Brown
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 7:27 AM
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] new beta in place..
The rubber will settle over time, but what other types of mount are
available? I checked mine after a couple of weeks once in the water and
there was no discernible movement. I'm about to do the 25 hour service on
the gearbox so will check again and then thereafter every year (with
gearbox / seal service). TBH I'm not that worried, the small clearance of
the Vega tube to shaft aside, as many, many boats would be running around
with installations that are never checked I would reckon. I think the best
advice I could give would be to make sure the alignment is as good as
possible to start with, and then check it again after a few days on the
water (although it seems the alignment doesn't really change on the Vega
between in and out of water).

Depending on condition, the coupling might be worth replacing as well. For
the relatively small extra cost, I'd replace the gland, but then again I
don't know the condition of yours. The one thing I would add is a "shaft
collar". One of these little do-dads, installed in the right spot, will
stop the shaft exiting stage left if it comes loose from the coupler and
can also potentially stop the seal coming all the way off the end of the
stern tube if that works loose as well. My boat has no less then 10 screws
holding down the cockpit floor - and there is no other access to the rear
of the engine - so I consider the consequences of loosing the shaft or seal
and the associated inrush of water to be a downright very-bad-thing!

Oh, and maybe the stern bearing as well while the shaft is out.

 

[groundhogyh]

Good Idea on the shaft collar.
Where do you buy the stern bearing and is there a part number?
gh

 

[groundhogyh]

also...
It seems the volvo MD6A was straight bolted solid to the fiberglass beds. Lots of little shims under the four big metal plates. No way to readjust itself over time.
Im not talking about the rubber absorbers.
On the beta, I am concerned with the threaded feet unscrewing over hours and hours of a very powerful and wiggling motor.
gh

 

[groundhogyh]

I believe I read somewhere that your target alignment between shaft and gearbox is 0.005 inches..
This is about the width of 2-3 hairs........ think about it.
gh

 

[reefmagnet]

The threaded feet use a spring washer on the bottom and a nyloc nut on top.
If tightened correctly they will not undo. If you
are particularly concerned you could also use loctite thread locker - or
just wait as rust is the poor man's loctite anyway. The manual specifies
the alignment as 0.004" from memory. I was surprised at how relatively easy
this is to achieve (with a helper!), although I used to align industrial
machines as part of my job years ago so perhaps that helped a lot. I have
to confess that I stole someone else's idea and used 5/16" bolts instead of
3/8" to hold the mounts to the beds to ensure I had plenty of fore and aft
adjustment.

I was also concerned that I only had 1/16" max clearance from my shaft to
the sterntube considering engine vibration on the rubber mounts, but this
hasn't been an issue at all. At the end of the day the system works in
practice much better then the "on paper" theory might suggest!