Pulling a prop

Rich Stidger · Oct 7, 2018

I have one I made for my 12-7 two blade prop on my Morgan 30. It is surplus to my needs. You can have it for the shipping. As you said, 1/2" steel plate and a couple big bolts. If you are interested, I can take a picture and post.

dlochner · Oct 7, 2018

Have you tried a gear puller? Probably find one at an auto parts store. The shaft is tapered, so once it starts to move, it should come right off, unless it doesn't.

If the shaft is bronze there is a chance that it has become once with the shaft. It was ugly. Now I have a nice 1" bronze rod in my garage.

RoyS · Oct 7, 2018

You should be able to buy a generic wheel puller in an auto parts store or sears tools. For a two blade fixed prop you will need two arm model.

DougM · Oct 7, 2018

I have used a gear puller like the one shown by RoyS. It works well.
Note that the prop shaft on my boat is stainless steel and not bronze, which may or may not make a difference.

Don S/V ILLusion · Oct 7, 2018

Two essential tools - a prop/gear puller and heat ( torch). The physics of thermal expansion is your friend.

duality · Oct 7, 2018

dont make my mistake, leave the nut on the shaft after you loosen it!

Tally Ho · Oct 7, 2018

My Bother-in-law made me some tools to assist in removing the cutlass bearing and my prop. As you said, some plate and some bolts do the trick. He is a real craftsman, so mine are a little nicer than if I tried to make them!

Greg

Whatfiero1 · Oct 7, 2018

I use chain with the same gear puller as shown. Just get longer bolts to go thru puller and chain

31seahorse · Oct 7, 2018

Tapping perpendicular to the shaft can help with a stubborn prop. Two hammers required....One as the tapper and one as the brace on the opposite side of the shaft. Don't just bash it. Tapping is the way to proceed. This might be done while the gear puller is in place and applying force. Beware of too much force with either the tapping hammer or with the gear puller! How do I know? Back in my younger days I expected the prop to yield if I applied enough turns on the gear puller. Well.....The threaded tip of our bronze shaft bent. Didn't do that again.

Rich Stidger · Oct 7, 2018

Ken Cross said:
Great offer, but I figure I can build one faster than I can have it shipped. Thanks.

Ken

No problem. I think I will list it in the digital dumpster if your change your mind.

Mikem · Oct 7, 2018

Ken, where do you plan to pull the prop?

capta · Oct 7, 2018

Once you have everything under pressure from the puller, apply a bit of heat to the prop's hub and it should literally jump right off the shaft. Note the wise person above who said to leave the nut on the end of the shaft a couple of threads, so your prop won't go damaging itself after it's attempt at flight.

JimInPB · Oct 7, 2018

Sometimes heat is your friend. Sometimes cold is your friend. brass & aluminum alloys usually expand roughly twice as fast as steel for the same change in temperature. Stainless is usually roughly in the middle of those two. If you have a stainless female with a bronze male inside, then you want dry ice, not a torch to loosen them, unless you can apply heat fast enough so that the outer part expands before the inner part gets hot. If the materials are the same, or if the faster moving alloy is on the outside, then heat is your friend. When using dry ice, soak the whole assembly for about half an hour so that the cold gets to the center of the shaft. Rub a little grease on the parts first to prevent humidity from turning to ice & sticking to the parts.

When tapping on the stuck parts while applying pressure with a puller, you don't need to hit the parts all that hard. You just need to get them ringing. The vibration is what you are looking for. When the parts have been in dry ice, the benefits of ringing them are amplified.

& +1 on leaving that nut on there. When a stuck taper shaft lets loose, it lets loose all at once.

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/linear-expansion-coefficients-d_95.html