Jeanneau Cutlass Bearing Replacement

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peterandjeanette

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I have been informed that the cutlass bearing on my Jeanneau 45 DS would benefit from being replaced.

My question is :-

Do I need to fully remove the prop shaft to achieve this?

Full removal of the shaft would require the rudder to be removed also. Not an easy option without digging holes in the boatyard concrete or lifting the whole boat up. Is there any way the prop shaft will slide past the rudder?

All advice welcome from those who have been there before me.
 
I have done this on a 2005 43' Jeanneau with 75HP Yanmar.

IIRC I unbolted prop at gearbox coupling end and drew prop shaft out of cutlass bearing into the boat. Did mine about 5yrs ago now!
 
You need to beg, borrow or make an extractor to get the old bearing out and put the new one in. With the right extractor you can change the bearing without moving the shaft. You need to remove the propeller and any rope cutter fitted to the shaft. The extractor consists of a piece of tube, split lengthwise and with an outside diameter a little less than the overall diameter of the cutless bearing. The split tube is assembled round the shaft with the halves held together with sticky tape. After removing the two screws that stop the bearing turning, the bearing is pushed out with two shaped metal plates and a pair of lengths of threaded rod. The parts of mine except for the two lengths of 10mm threaded rod are shown here.

 
peterandjeanette said:
I have been informed that the cutlass bearing on my Jeanneau 45 DS would benefit from being replaced.

My question is :-

Do I need to fully remove the prop shaft to achieve this?

Full removal of the shaft would require the rudder to be removed also. Not an easy option without digging holes in the boatyard concrete or lifting the whole boat up. Is there any way the prop shaft will slide past the rudder?

All advice welcome from those who have been there before me.
Click to expand...
Not sure all SO45DSs are the same, but if the prop is on a P-bracket (as some 45DSs definitely are) all that is needed is to remove small side screws at the bottom of the P-bracket, remove the prop, and tap out the cutless bearing from the P-bracket. Norman's made-up pusher tapper-outer is ideal, but mine came out without need for such a precise extractor.
 
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jwilson said:
Not sure all SO45DSs are the same, but if the prop is on a P-bracket (as some 45DSs definitely are) all that is needed is to remove small side screws at the bottom of the P-bracket, remove the prop, and tap out the cutless bearing from the P-bracket. Norman's made-up pusher tapper-outer is ideal, but mine came out without need for such a precise extractor.
Click to expand...

and mine - screw was burried in antifoul though! Used a large socket as a drift for both getting old one out and new one in. Light sanding and lubrication and new one went in with soft taps on socket.
 
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Simple enough job to do the Cutless bearing on my Jeanneau 42DS. I bought 2 bits of scrap tubing and some plate. The smaller tubing was cut in 2 lengthwise, held on shaft with cable ties and had small enough diam. to pull bearing through the P-bracket. I made a yoke from one piece of plate (U-shaped cut out) and fitted another piece of plate on top of the larger diameter tube over shaft end. Threaded bar and nuts to pull the bearing through.

Difficult to describe but I can probably find some pictures somewhere. I didn't want to use a drift as I didn't know how hard I'd need to hit the bearing. Screws on side were easy to remove.

Hardest part was removing the prop. with a huge puller. Limited grip area behind prop., so yoke I mentioned above was slipped in to provide something to grip. I supported the prop. with rope, tightened the puller, heated briefly with a torch and tapped both sides with hammers. Prop. flew off at great speed.


N.B. Jeanneau price for the bearing was silly (£90-£100 I think). I couldn't get the exact size elsewhere but found one only 5mm shorter for a fraction of the price. Other dimensions were identical.
 
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Mistroma said:
N.B. Jeanneau price for the bearing was silly (£90-£100 I think). I couldn't get the exact size elsewhere but found one only 5mm shorter for a fraction of the price. Other dimensions were identical.
Click to expand...

That reminds me - I got replacement from ASAP and one dimension was metric and the other imperial!! IIRC the shaft was metric and the P bracket internal dia was Imperial!!
 
Sailfree said:
That reminds me - I got replacement from ASAP and one dimension was metric and the other imperial!! IIRC the shaft was metric and the P bracket internal dia was Imperial!!
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Yes, My 45.2 has a 30mm shaft but the P bracket bore is 1.75 inches!

I found that I needed the extractor as the brass bearing shell was a very tight fit.
 
jwilson said:
Not sure all SO45DSs are the same, but if the prop is on a P-bracket (as some 45DSs definitely are) all that is needed is to remove small side screws at the bottom of the P-bracket, remove the prop, and tap out the cutless bearing from the P-bracket.
Click to expand...

You should avoid tapping or hammering the P bracket, they bend. Use a puller.

You can also instal composite bearings on epoxy as a clearance (slide in by hand) fit, to remove some heat applied to the bronze P bracket softens the epoxy, following one conversation recently this isn't a fix for a bearing carrier out of alignment as the epoxy should only be a thin film 0.20mm. It does allow you to check if the bearing carrier is lined up as you can chock the shaft and have a dry run installation where the bearing can be slid up the shaft and into the carrier without binding and only a 0.10/0.20 clearance.
 
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