Strut Repair or replacement

[Dub Collins]

I found out recently that the strut was broken. I put the boat on a sandbar and discovered that the strut was completely separated at the plate. The plate was still firmly bolted to the boat but the strut itself had completely broken loose. My question is can this be replaced while it is on the sandbar (if I can get the bolts out)? Will that cause a leak? Where do I find cutlass bearings? Does anyone have any info about replacing the packing around the shaft?Any help would be appreciated.

 

[David Mullenax]

Not something I'd want to do

Wow, sounds like you hit pretty hard. My strut got bent when I wrapped a dock line around the prop.At the last haulout, I removed it and had it straightened. I don't think I would've wanted to do it in the water. The sealant is some pretty tough stuff, it took well over an hour to pry the strut out and get all the old sealant out of the strut depression. Also it's a two man job to get the four bolts out and back in, one inside and one outside.

 

[Warren Renninger]

Replacing strut

I removed the strut on my 1980 H27 when I replaced the cutlass bearing. Get new bearings at West Marine or other chandlery. On my H27, you can unscrew the plywood panel at the quarter berth to get to the strut nuts. I found that to align the strut after removal is the hard part. I had to shim under the strut with washers to get it to align right. This can be a real problem but compared to broken strut not as bad.I have a boat lift and it takes me about 4 hours to pull the strut, remove prop,carefully cut old cutlass bearing down the middle so I can then peel it out, clean out the strut, insert the new bearing and reinstall everything. I don't know I would want to do it racing a tide. At least I'd want to have a plan to seal the bolt holes in case . . . I found that freezing the new bearing and putting it in while shrunk due to cooling works fairly well.Best of luck.