P-bracket

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chimere382

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I have a Jeanneau (yes i know!!!)Sun Odyssey 40. My engine was mis-aligned and therefore the prop shaft. Consequently the c-bearing had to be changed. However the P-bracket started to move back and forth when this was being done. It now seems to be stable? My mechanic, sorry i"m a dumb blonde but due to change that tonight but that's another subject, says that he's not sure if we should attempt to get to the bottom of this by getting to the top of P-bracket, if you see what i mean? Unfortunately the top of the bracket is embedded in a thick fibreglass coat and will take a month of sundays to dig out.
Can anybody help: should we do this,what is the upshot if we dont? Does anybody know what is actually up there - is it a plate with a bolt? Is there nothing there except the fibreglass coating. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
You need to stop it from moving. May just be able to do this from outside as in the link above, but if it has disturbed the reinforcing inside then that needs dealing with.

This is a weakness of this type of construction, particularly if you get a rope caught, so important to fit an efficient rope cutter - not just the simple disc that Jeanneau fit.
 
There's a page about this on my website,http://coxengineering.sharepoint.com/Pages/Pbracket.aspx about a Sadler, not a Jeanneau, but likely to be similar. There are two types of fixing: in one the P-bracket has a platform cast into it, in the more common one two lengths of angle are bolted to the bracket and the hull. The angles are then glassed over and flowcoated to make it all look nice. In your case it needs attention soon or now, sounds like the bolts have loosened or broken. Having the P- bracket loose will compromise alignment, may cause the shaft to strike the stern tube and at worst could lead to leakage of seawater into the boat.
 
Part of the alignment is to have the shaft aligned in the P bracket bearing, if there is any movement of the P bracket you can't do this and the shaft will be able to flex/whip all over the place resulting in rapid bearing wear, noise and vibration. If it isn't solidly bolted or bonded this will only get worse and the engine could become unusable or at worse the P bracket could fracture or separate from the fixing. Really quite an important job to get fixed.
 
Troubadour said:
http://www.jeanneau-owners2.com/hintsandtips/id127.htm

May be of relevance. I don't know which model it relates to, yours may be similar or not!

You don't want it loose, that's for sure.
Click to expand...

Just read this one and a couple of things leap out. Firstly, he ground out the old grp - big mistake, makes an incredible amount of mess, which he refers to. I used a hammer and wood chisel and had very little mess, easy to clean up. Secondly, in his example there are no angle brackets, the P-bracket is simply glassed in. Not a very sound arrangement but I suppose not unusual in modern boatbuilding.
 
Thank you very much for your information. Can I ask, if i use a hammer and wood chisel (which i had intended to do anyway in fact) would you have any idea of the thickness of the fibreglass, how long the job might take and would I have to rebuild the whole housing when i chiseled through. Why i ask is i have been out of the water for a while and its very expensive in the yard i am in, so i need to get back in asap BUT if all the YBW's think it's a very important job then it must be done.
My boat is ex charter and i believe if a rope caught around the bracket, it happenened then as it has not happened with me. I have had the boat for five years therefore any slight movement may have been there a long time. I have only changed the cutlass bearing once, on this last time of being out of the water? I dont know what to do really as another friend of mine says its probably ok bearing in mind what i've just said - sorry i"m being a bit confusing!
 
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