thrust bearing reqd?

vic008

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31ft yacht: Installing a 20hp engine on rubber mounts.Surely a thrust bearing will be required, although none of my research says so. How else would the thrust be transmitted to the hull?
 
31ft yacht: Installing a 20hp engine on rubber mounts.Surely a thrust bearing will be required, although none of my research says so. How else would the thrust be transmitted to the hull?

The bearings in a marine gearbox are designed to take the engine thrust. This is quite normal though some folk do install proprietary thrust bearings and
universal joints to allow the engine to move around on its mounts without wobbling the shaft.

It is important to ensure that the shaft is centralised in the stern tube and that the seal you use is tolerant of the fore and aft movement of the engine between running astern and ahead.
 
On a 31ft boat it is usual for the thrust to be transmitted to the hull through the engine mounts.

However, if you fit an aquadrive you can mount the engine on much softer blocks and so have less vibration transmitted to the hull.
 
The simple set up is as mentioned thrust is taken in the gearbox on a thrust bearing internaly and transmitted through the rubber mounts.

The alternatives are a Hydradrive or an Aquadrive or simpler and cheaper (not thrust but CV) the Marine joint which allows for misalignment as the engine moves on its mounts whilst allowing the shaft to run true without side thrusts.

http://www.thermoboat.com/ptmarine.htm
We can get them but we've stopped selling them as we're too busy with bearings!
 
Most small boats have a "soft" drive with the load transmitted through the shaft clamp to the engine mounts.
Yanmar bearings are extremely soft, despite that it seems to have worked quite well on my boat for 22 years and 2 engines.
One word of warning, in ahead the shaft is pushed into the shaft clamp, in reverse, with an Autoprop which is as efficient in reverse as forward gear, the shaft can be pulled from the clamp, if one is too enthusiastic in reverse gear.
Unfortunately, in most boats of 31', there is insufficient room to fit any of the proprietary thrust bearings.
 
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