Question re stern tube and prop shaft

[Daverw]

I've a Kelt 29 and the prop shaft is slightly bent, the boats in the water and difficult at the moment to inspect so I'm trying to understand what changing the shaft is most likely to involve.

It has rubber shaft gland into stern tube, is this likely to have an outerseal as it exits to the P bracket? The P bracket will have a cutlass bearing that will be changed. I'm not sure if the prop shaft will pass the rudder but expect that this will also have to be dropped, this has I understand a bottom skeg/ bracket that would need to be removed.

Any comments or advice greatfully appreciated.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Don't know the boat but is there enough room to pull the engine forward and draw the shaft into the boat?

 

[Daverw]

I'm looking to see if it's possible to jack the engine off its mounts using blocks and slide the shaft underneath, the engine would be hard to move back, need to see how much head clearance it has under steps

 

[Topcat47]

This is general advice. It's going to depend on where the apex of the bend is, and how long the shaft. If the shaft is bent between the hull and "P" bracket, drawing it in through the boat may be difficult. If the bend is inside the boat, removing it astern will be problematical. This is due to it's having to pass through the stern tube.

Which ever way it needs to come out, it's going to be a headache. You either remove the "P" bracket, coupling and possibly the rudder to draw it out astern or the engine and gearbox so it can come out into the saloon. The more pronounced the bend. the worse it's going to be. My propshaft was only 0.5mm out of true between the gearbox and stern tube, but it wouldn't come out astern.

It may be possible to remove the cutless bearing from the "p" bracket and get the shaft out without actually touching the bracket itself if the bend isn't too severe..

If there's a Kelt owners site, you might get some model specific tips there.