Cutlass bearing removal with shaft in place

[All_at_Sea]

Having spoken to Contest in Holland they have a special tool (too heavy to post or lend) that can remove a cutlass bearing with the shaft in place. It goes over the shaft and screws into the metal of the bearing sleeve and then you hammer it out with a collar attached to this device. Very clever but does anyone have one in the UK?

I'm in Portsmouth so in need of an engineer that can do this without dropping the rudder. Any suggestions for possible engineers in the neighbourhood?

 

[superboots]

In the past on my moody this was done at the boatyard with nothing more fancy than a pipe of the same dimension as the bearing siced in half longitudinally with flanges at each end. A threaded rod passes through holes in the flanges with nuts at the outer ends. By tightening the nuts at the shft end the bearing is pushed out. - rember to loosen the grub screws buried in the side of the P bracket

 

[Mistroma]

In the past on my moody this was done at the boatyard with nothing more fancy than a pipe of the same dimension as the bearing siced in half longitudinally with flanges at each end. A threaded rod passes through holes in the flanges with nuts at the outer ends. By tightening the nuts at the shft end the bearing is pushed out. - rember to loosen the grub screws buried in the side of the P bracket

I did pretty much the same thing. Some scrap pipe and steel plate. The plate could have been a bit thicker but I have used it twice so far without any problem. I didn't bother with anything fancy to hold the half pipe sections on the shaft, just some cable ties.

I'm surprised that the genuine "special" tool involves hammering the bearing out. Not a great idea with a P-bracket and a threaded puller is much kinder to the fittings.

I'm assuming that OPs boat does have a P-bracket.

 

[Alpha22]

I fashioned one from a redundant Triumph Spitfire spring compressor and a length of scaffold tube cut in two.

Here it is popping out the cutless from a P bracket....

 

[All_at_Sea]

Thanks all but l don't have a P bracket! It is a through hull fitting I am trying to remove.....

 

[All_at_Sea]

This the tool they suggest.

 

[Steve_N]

The diagram is a bit small but basically it looks like a tapered thread is screwed hard into the inside of the cutless casing and then a slide-hammer is used to pull it out.
I guess that Contest should know how hard it will be to extract and that the tool is up to the job but I'd be wary of the cutless casing being expanded as the tool is turned in, making it an even tighter fit in the stern tube.

I have the same job to do (not on a Contest) and am going to bite the bullet and drop the rubber and remove the shaft first as I suspect that mine will be a bitch to extract (other owners have found one grubscrew glassed-in in the stern log itself..). I have a magazine article by someone with the same arrangement that managed the job by inserting lengths of mild steel bar from inside between the shaft and stern tube and hammering the bearing out but that seems risky.

 

[fisherman]

FWIW mine is threaded on the outside end, a collar screwed on, which has three locating screws into the end of the tube (as well as grub screws round the side). Makes life easier, although not touched since 1996. (Big shaft, slow revs)