drive shaft broke

[brooster]

91 Supra Sunsport drive shaft broke at about 35 MPH. Did not appear that we hit anything. No other apparent damage except to the prop from sliding back into the rudder and a bent strut. How difficult is the replacement and can a handyman do it at home?
Transmission still seems to work normally.

[michael hunter]

It sounds like you did hit something with the bent strut?
Its not that hard of a job I hit a rock 19 years ago I replaced the drive shaft,strut,cuppler
and of course the prop. You will need to cut a socket down to shorten it to get the nut
off the cuppler. I think it was a 1 1/8 but I am not sure. Make sure you check the drive shaft alignment after you get everything replaced. This should be covered by your
insurance hitting an underwater object. good luck with your repair.

[brooster]

Thanks Michael. What is involved with getting the alignment checked? I have heard it needed to be aligned with a laser.

[riveredge]

check this out for alignment:
http://correctcraftfan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6037&PN=2

[wotan2525]

Hah! A laser! Nope... just some feeler gauges.

If the shaft broke -- you hit something. No two ways about it. Pull everything and have everything from the coupler back checked out. My guess is that you've got other issues.

The OEM on the driveshaft, couplers and strut is Marine Associates. http://www.marineassociates.com/ They can straighten/check anything you might need. Your local prop place may be able to do it locally or they may send it out to them.

[michael hunter]

Thanks Michael. What is involved with getting the alignment checked? I have heard it needed to be aligned with a laser.

Your insurance should cover this. If not give me a fax number I will send you the
alignment procedure from the owners manual .

[brooster]

fax number is 704-362-0904. Thanks for the help.

[Salty87]

it's possible for the shaft to pull out of the coupler if the set screws have backed off. happened to me a long time ago. i think what really happened was that there was a vibration that worked things loose...bad alignment.

my insurance co (progressive i'm pretty sure) was NOT helpful, they wanted to raise my rates AND deny the claim. check your policy before you call. i had to go rounds with a manager to clear it up and still pay out of pocket for repairs.

[DKJBama92Mariah]

Michael make a very good point here. Engine alignment is key. Actually, a shaft that is run while badly misaligned can snap without hitting anything at all.

Theoretically, the strut could have already been bent and just gone unnoticed. The bent strut would then have put the shaft out of alignment eventually causing it to fail. I'm not saying this is what happened, but it's definitely a possibility; especially if your just absolutely sure that you didn't hit anything when it failed.

Changing a strut and shaft are not hard at all. Aligning the engine afterwords is probably the toughest part. If you DIY, you can probably get away with $500-600 worth of parts plus the cost of getting the prop knocked back into shape.

I'm not sure I'm would risk a rate hike by making a claim on something this small. Save that for when you run aground and rip of the drive gear and rudder off and knock a hole in the bottom to boot.

[brooster]

After pulling everything out and looking it over, I believe the strut was bent when I bought the boat and the stress of running while bent finally took it's toll. Thanks for the help.