Replacing cutlass bearing with prop shaft in situ?

[MoodySabre]

I couldn't mine out with an extractor. In the end I took the shaft out and sawed through the bearing. It would have saved a lot of time to have done that in the first place. With the bearing out I put the shaft back in and slid the new bearing up the shaft using the extractor in reverse.

 

[Tim Good]

using the extractor in reverse.

Ok great.

 

[vyv_cox]

Out of interest... assuming I do get the bearing out and assuming this gives me enough room to get my prop shaft out on one side of my skeg.... does a new cutlass bearing need to be installed with the prop out or can they be installed with the prop in situ also?

Are we talking prop or prop shaft here? The cutless bearing can be replaced around the shaft.

 

[Tim Good]

Are we talking prop or prop shaft here? The cutless bearing can be replaced around the shaft.

Prop shaft. Yes so the point of this thread, albeit it useful in its own right, was to determine if I go to the effort of removing the cutlass bearing which the prop is in the P bracket, and by some very good fortune, the prop shaft does squeeze out around the shaft, this will only be a useful exercise if I can get the new shaft back in the way it came and then install and new cutlass bearing afterwards with new prop shaft in situ.

Sounds like it can and worth the bother of me trying before I start dismantling the engine to get the shaft out forwards.

 

[Alpha22]

Has anyone used anything like this to change a cutlass bearing without removing the shaft?

Yes... I made my own from an unwanted Triumph Spitfire suspension spring compressor and a length of scaffold tube cut in two. It worked brilliantly. Here it is just before the pull!!!

And after a bit is squeezed out.

 

[Norman_E]

I couldn't mine out with an extractor. In the end I took the shaft out and sawed through the bearing. It would have saved a lot of time to have done that in the first place. With the bearing out I put the shaft back in and slid the new bearing up the shaft using the extractor in reverse.

With mine all you need to put the new bearing in is the ring shaped piece shown in the photo. It is a stepped ring that fits into the large hole in the extractor plate, and pushes on the bearing, which would otherwise pass through the hole. A big washer would do the same job.