Replacing a cutless bearing

[IanJackson]

Following a rope round my prop, I find that I have vibration at certain prop speed range and on inspection I find the cut less bearing has broken up and there is significant sideways movement possible of the shaft.

Has anyone any advice on changing a cutless bearing. Can it be done in the water? or do I need a lift out. My boat is a 36 foot Beneteau and the stern tube is in a skeg, not a P bracket. Any advice from anyone who has changed a cutless bearing please.

 

[John_d_Smith]

Cutless bearing replacement

Hi I have changed a cutless bearing in a P bracket and i doubt very much if you could do this whilst the boat was in the water. You would have to remove the shaft and to get it past the rudder would usually mean taking the prop of. The cutless bearing is often held in place with a grub screw through the tube in which it is situated, this grub screw can be difficult to remove or even find under years of anti-fouling. The bearing can then need knocking out or extracting with a puller.

 

[TQA]

Haulout and almost certainly you will need to pull the shaft.

Get the pros to do it!

 

[Tranona]

It is a bush in a stainless steel tube, locked in with a grub screw. Definitely out of water job and you will need to remove the prop at least, but best done by removing the whole shaft.. Good opportunity to fit a proper rope cutter to reduce the chance of it happening again.

 

[Mistroma]

I think Beneteau might have a soft type which should be easy to remove. My Jeanneau was meant to be that type but dealer checked and said they'd fitted an odd size expensive one to my boat (typical).

I made up a puller for my boat and job was easy enough without removing the shaft so it is possible to do it that way. However, I couldn't have managed it afloat as I needed heat to shift the prop.

I suspect that you'd run into similar problems even if you have diving gear aboard. So lift out is probably the cheapest option.

 

[Roaring Girl]

I would be astonished if you could do this in the water.

We replace ours fairly often as the heavy (but lovely) Brunton's autoprop tends to wear it quite hard and cause a wobble if we don't renew it. For ours, ASAP is the cheapest place to buy the replacement. Once you have the shaft out and ahve located the grubscrew, it's not too bad a job if you want to do it yourself.

 

[Liz_I]

I would be astonished if you could do this in the water.

We replace ours fairly often as the heavy (but lovely) Brunton's autoprop tends to wear it quite hard and cause a wobble if we don't renew it. For ours, ASAP is the cheapest place to buy the replacement. Once you have the shaft out and ahve located the grubscrew, it's not too bad a job if you want to do it yourself.

Hi

If you need to do this often then it would seem that you would need to look at you engine mounts and make sure they are correctly aligned.

 

[Roaring Girl]

Hi there Ziggy and pats and hugs all round.

We did have a look but all involved came to the conclusion that prop is just that bit heavy. It's not that often but we do check it regular.

When we bought RG she's been damaged there; despite a certified rebuild job we ended up doing a significant amount of work to the area 4 years later, so it's something we keep an extremely close eye on!

 

[SvenglishTommy]

I just changed mine. It's definitely an out of the water job, and well worth getting the pros to do it with a proper puller. Cost me about £70 for the work and new bearing.

 

[tri39]

Second that. I had mine changed at Nautec while out of the water. Italian engineer used a puller and fitted the new bearing I supplied. Prop must come off, but shaft can usually stay in, esp with a P bracket. Whether it's that simple for you depends on geometry of your skeg.
Must be done this winter!

 

[Frankie-H]

This seems very like your thread on PBO. Not too good an idea to post across the forums.

Same answers apply to your question here.

 

[Frankie-H]

Several people have answered you but you have not come back to their questions. You will find a huge amount of help and expertise on these forums but you will be expected to contribute.

I have found photos of Bene 36s and your shaft exits the hull through a build up stern tube. I do not think this is normally called a skeg.

Answer the questions asked and we will be happy to help, if we can.