'Home-made' cutless bearing remover

[Neil_Y]

I was petrified of damaging the 'P' bracket so I resorted to a 'slowly, slowly, catchy monkey' approach!

Too many engineers own large hammers?

 

[jim.howes]

In case it may be of any use to anyone, I removed the cutless bearing from my boat recently and felt chuffed with myself for doing so.

I didn't fancy the prospect of paying the yard to do it or buy a purpose made remover. I really didn't want to attempt to do it myself until I had a good look at what I had to hand in my shed.

I had a bearing puller, I asked a local scaffold company for a short piece of pipe and sent away for a 'cut to size' disc of 6mm thick mild steel (£3.00). I added a few plates to add length to the puller's reach and then put it all in place.

The cutless bearing was 1 1/8" x 1 5/8" x 4 1/2" so the 40mm steel disc (which i reduced to 39mm) covered the end of the bearing but was smaller by a few mm to fit inside the 'P' bracket hole. Grip was a problem at the other end so I cut a piece of scaffold pipe and opened it out a bit so that the cutless bearing would pass through.

Having taken out the grub nuts either side, I turned the bearing bolt and slowly out popped the bearing!

Phew!

Hi your puller is a great idea, simple, easily managed single handed and if you have the puller hiding in the shed its cheap. Brilliant just fit a large hose clip around the legs to stop them springing open.

 

[Mei Mac]

Hi your puller is a great idea, simple, easily managed single handed and if you have the puller hiding in the shed its cheap. Brilliant just fit a large hose clip around the legs to stop them springing open.

Thanks! Thanks also for the hose clip idea. I did feel at the time that I needed 5 hands to do the job!

 

[jim.howes]

The guy I bought my new bearing from told me that the prop shaft may seem a bit loose inside the bearing, with a slight bit of play. But after time, he said, the hard black lining takes in an amount of water and expands a little and everything will fit nicely. I wasn't aware of this.

I've also heard that it's a good idea to put the new bearing in the freezer before trying to install it in the 'P' bracket, since it will reduce slightly in size.

Any comments?

Hi there should be something like 0.006" to 0.007" clearance in your cutlass bearing as for the lining expanding not so sure.