Should my drive shaft have this gap....

[thesack]

I am kidding, broke the drive shaft over the weekend towing the rider going down the middle of the river and hit something. The only thing we can think of for what happened is that whatever we hit bent the strut causing the shaft to snap. Which caused the prop to go into the rudder, also had the prop hit the fiberglass. Which you can kind of see in the first pic. Since AWS had never seen a shaft broken in half, i thought i would share.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k128/nadams18/shaft.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k128/nadams18/prop.jpg

[Okie Boarder]

Good thing the prop didn't drop out and go to the bottom.

[87SunSportMikeyD]

Best of luck getting back on the water

[Mani]

To answer your question, it looks normal to me. I've got the same thing going on. Previous owner told me it was a "speed gap". Makes it more hydrodynamic. ;)

In all seriousness, Okie's right about that prop. Not to mention, you could've done alot more damage with a loose prop than what you had happen. Hope everything get fixed fast, so you can get back out there. Good luck.

[wotan2525]

Any theories on how the prop and that broken end of shaft didn't fall out? Seems crazy!

[riveredge]

Any theories on how the prop and that broken end of shaft didn't fall out? Seems crazy!

It just smacked the rudder... it's happened to me before on an old correct craft. No other damage, I'm didn't hear anything hit the boat, just one clunk when the prop nailed the rudder. Shaft broke just behind the coupler.

[thesack]

The prop was up tight against the rudder right after it all happened. The shaft was still long enough to keep the prop from falling all the way out. We actually heard 3 clunks before we were dead in the water.