scottschmitt
04-25-2016, 11:08 PM
I need some help getting my prop back on. This all seems silly, and unnecessarily tricky.
Long story. We have an 89 Sunsport and boat in a shallow river (4-8’). Granted, this isn’t the best idea, but it’s close to home, the water is flat, there is a marina with a slip on the water, and this means we can get in a couple sets on the way to work. There is a deeper river with a marina ~1 hour away, but that’s too far for the dawn-patrol run before work.
Anyway, as it won’t surprise you, after a couple years there we had a bit of vibration in the back end of the boat. We pulled it out of the water and took it to the shop last September. They said they wouldn’t have time to work on it for 3 weeks, which meant the end of the season. They told me the prop was “garbage.” It looked a little dinged up to me, but he assured me it was trash. So, I took the boat home, called Skidim, asked them to send me a new prop that would make me happy. They sent an OJ 4 blade 13 x 15.5. I put it on and boy did it go like stink. Smooth as silk. Beautiful hole shot and better top end. We happily skied well into November.
Over the winter I found a shop that welds and rebalances props. I pulled the new one off (yes, we dinged it up already) and got the old prop and new prop cleaned up. Thing is, when I went to pull the new prop, I found it was farther up the drive shaft than the old prop sat and that I had to unscrew the little cup from the prop puller to get the prop puller on. It popped off fine though.
I also stumbled across some comments about laping the drive shaft. This sounded like a good idea. I put the new prop on and drew a line on the drive shaft with a sharpy. It’s a bit higher up than the old prop (picture is with the old prop on and you can see a gap between the top of the old prop and the line). I’m not happy about how far up the new prop sits. When I spun it with the blue dye, it looked pretty good. Still, I’m not happy with how far up it sits and I wasn’t keen on laping it and possibly moving it farther up the shaft.
Also, over the winter I bought a new keyway, new nut, and new cotter pin, because that seemed all like a good idea. The new keyway sits nicely in the drive shaft slot. Thing is, the slot in the propeller is tappered on both ends. So if I start with the keyway in the drive shaft, I can’t get it to slip into the propeller. And if I start with it in the propeller, it won’t slip over the teeth on the drive shaft.
It turns out that the old keyway was in two pieces. When I put the new prop on last fall, I only used one of them because the other one was stuck in the old prop and I didn’t notice it. The old keyway doesn’t look like it was ever one piece that split. Just like two pieces. And I can’t get them to fit together back in the slot. They just seem too big. In the end, I can get the old propeller back on with one of the old keyways, but I can’t get the old prop on with the new keyway and I’m not happy with how far up the driveshaft the new prop sits with either set up.
So I put the old prop on with ½ the old keyway, a new nut, and new cotter pin. This doesn’t seem quite right. But it fits all snug.
Thoughts? I must be doing something daft.
Long story. We have an 89 Sunsport and boat in a shallow river (4-8’). Granted, this isn’t the best idea, but it’s close to home, the water is flat, there is a marina with a slip on the water, and this means we can get in a couple sets on the way to work. There is a deeper river with a marina ~1 hour away, but that’s too far for the dawn-patrol run before work.
Anyway, as it won’t surprise you, after a couple years there we had a bit of vibration in the back end of the boat. We pulled it out of the water and took it to the shop last September. They said they wouldn’t have time to work on it for 3 weeks, which meant the end of the season. They told me the prop was “garbage.” It looked a little dinged up to me, but he assured me it was trash. So, I took the boat home, called Skidim, asked them to send me a new prop that would make me happy. They sent an OJ 4 blade 13 x 15.5. I put it on and boy did it go like stink. Smooth as silk. Beautiful hole shot and better top end. We happily skied well into November.
Over the winter I found a shop that welds and rebalances props. I pulled the new one off (yes, we dinged it up already) and got the old prop and new prop cleaned up. Thing is, when I went to pull the new prop, I found it was farther up the drive shaft than the old prop sat and that I had to unscrew the little cup from the prop puller to get the prop puller on. It popped off fine though.
I also stumbled across some comments about laping the drive shaft. This sounded like a good idea. I put the new prop on and drew a line on the drive shaft with a sharpy. It’s a bit higher up than the old prop (picture is with the old prop on and you can see a gap between the top of the old prop and the line). I’m not happy about how far up the new prop sits. When I spun it with the blue dye, it looked pretty good. Still, I’m not happy with how far up it sits and I wasn’t keen on laping it and possibly moving it farther up the shaft.
Also, over the winter I bought a new keyway, new nut, and new cotter pin, because that seemed all like a good idea. The new keyway sits nicely in the drive shaft slot. Thing is, the slot in the propeller is tappered on both ends. So if I start with the keyway in the drive shaft, I can’t get it to slip into the propeller. And if I start with it in the propeller, it won’t slip over the teeth on the drive shaft.
It turns out that the old keyway was in two pieces. When I put the new prop on last fall, I only used one of them because the other one was stuck in the old prop and I didn’t notice it. The old keyway doesn’t look like it was ever one piece that split. Just like two pieces. And I can’t get them to fit together back in the slot. They just seem too big. In the end, I can get the old propeller back on with one of the old keyways, but I can’t get the old prop on with the new keyway and I’m not happy with how far up the driveshaft the new prop sits with either set up.
So I put the old prop on with ½ the old keyway, a new nut, and new cotter pin. This doesn’t seem quite right. But it fits all snug.
Thoughts? I must be doing something daft.