trouble with transmission flange to shaft

[19thol]

Hey All,
I can't get the flange that attaches the prop shaft to the trans apart. I sprayed with blaster, applied heat, and put a clamp on a diaganal to try to pop it apart, but no go. Haveing a hard time resisting whacking it with a hammer, help!

 

[skipmac]

A little bit of polite whacking may be indicated. Of course don't get too aggressive with the whacking as you could damage seals or bearings in the tranny. I would try getting a cold chisel, setting the edge of the chisel in the groove between the flanges and tapping. That might break the grip between the two parts. Then insert the chisel or a screwdriver in the gap and wedge the flanges apart.

 

[LeslieTroyer]

I'd hit it only if you want to rebuild the trans. They cannot take that abuse

Les

 

[skipmac]

I'd hit it only if you want to rebuild the trans. They cannot take that abuse

Les

Well doesn't it really depend on how hard you hit it? I think you would agree that lightly tapping the flange with a 2 oz tack hammer would not harm the transmission but clearly beating it full force with a 10 lb sledge hammer would probably trash the transmission. Somewhere between these two extremes there could a point that one could tap hard enough to break the bond between the flanges without damaging the transmission.

I had this problem and set a sharp edged cold chisel on the crack between the two flanges and tapped (not hit, beat or hammered with great force) just enough to get the edge of the chisel into the crack and start wedging the flanges apart. An even more conservative approach might be to use an old knife or wood chisel which might penetrate the joint with a minimum of force. All you need to do is open just a tiny gap so you can get a screwdriver blade or similar in to get it into the crack and wiggle back and forth to start moving the flanges apart.

This was several years ago and so far my transmission is just fine.

 

[Maine Sail]

Be very, very, very careful with PB Blaster near your gear box output seal or you'll also be doing a gear box rebuild...

Why are you pulling the flange?

 

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[Alan Gomes]

Hey All,
I can't get the flange that attaches the prop shaft to the trans apart. I sprayed with blaster, applied heat, and put a clamp on a diaganal to try to pop it apart, but no go. Haveing a hard time resisting whacking it with a hammer, help!

I strongly advise against whacking with a hammer. My friend Neil Dutton fabricated this tool which splits the coupler without banging on it. We used it on my boat and it worked well. We'd be willing to loan it to you for the cost of round-trip shipping.

 

[seadaddler]

Look on Mainsails web page and he show;s how to do the job and when it came to getting the flange off the shaft
I had to use heat with a small bernz o matic small torch and a little tapping with hammer and between the 2 it did come off but not very easy and go slow and take your time and look at Mainsail's web page how.
Nick

 

[Alan Gomes]

Look on Mainsails web page and he show;s how to do the job and when it came to getting the flange off the shaft
I had to use heat with a small bernz o matic small torch and a little tapping with hammer and between the 2 it did come off but not very easy and go slow and take your time and look at Mainsail's web page how.
Nick

Unless I am mistaken, the original question had nothing to do with getting the flange off of the shaft but about separating the transmission flange from the coupler on the prop shaft.

 

[seadaddler]

Mainsail's web site show's how to separate the flanges.
Nick

 

[19thol]

thanks for all the replies, got the thing separated by running the engine, trans in reverse for a minute or so, thinking the prop would exert a pull on the flange, and it worked like a champ. I did get some blaster on the rear seal of the trans, will flush it with something less likely to eat the seal. I needed to get it apart so I could align the motor and shaft, there was a lot of weird noises coming from the shaft when motoring, was pretty sure that was the issue. Got her all lined up, haven't tried it yet, but confident we are set to go.

 

[All U Get]

I think you got an angel looking over your shoulder. Since we had our transmission problem we have heard many stories of what happened to other boats. Our friend from NY and the mechanic that did our work mentioned putting the transmission in reverse will pull the shaft back. If the flange slips off, the whole shaft can pull out through the shaft log leaving you with a nice hole below water line and your shaft and prop outside or lying on the bottom. My friends backed out just enough that he had to get a diver to push it back in. Now he attaches a shaft zinc inside the boat on the shaft between the stuffing box and flange.

All U Get

 

[19thol]

that would suck! at idle the thing is not spining very fast, don't think that was in the cards, on the other hand, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.