shaft alignment

[martinriches]

Any suggestions how to align my shaft? There is a outer and inner plain bearing with a stuffing box. The shaft attaches to the gearbox with a flexible coupling. I am doing it by trial and error at the moment, that is adjusting the engine height and seeing whether the shaft feels freerer or not. I have got it from very stiff to rotating fairly freely by hand. I am thinking about leaving it at that in case I make it worse again. Having spent the best part of a grand on the shaft and bearings I would like to get it as right as I can.

Thanks Martin

 

[Floating Preferably]

Hi Martin, it would depend on the type of coupling as to how you do this.My flexible couplings are have a marked bolt, and the clearance between the bolt head and a metal plate just in front of it is measured with a feeler gauge 4 times at 90 degee intervals. You attempt to get all four readings as close as possible to each other, a few thousanths, should mean the shaft is at its most free point. It can be tedious!
The manufacturer should supply a written procedure.:encouragement: