VETUS FLEXIBLE COUPLING TYPE 6.... HELP PLEASE!!!

Scotty_Tradewind

Scotty_Tradewind

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Me: South Oxfordshire. Boat, Galicia NW Spain
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I have the coupling apart, but cannot see how the pin in the shaft comes out. I have hit the flat end of the pin with a parrallel punch but it hasn't moved. The other end of the pin has has like a really wide slot in it.
Any advice please?
I have the exploded view of the coupling and it doesn't seem quite the same, or is not in enough detail to see
 
I guess you have the installation instructions http://www.vetusweb.com/manuals/files/Flexible_couplings/030201.01%20r01%2009-07.pdf
It's a pdf so you can enlarge it if necessary.

Bigger hammer perhaps. Heat often helps. The pin may have become distorted. Last resort may be to drill it out but you'd need to set it up on a decent drilling machine to do it I expect.

Is the pin two concentric parts. You have to drive the middle bit out first?
 
Once fitted this type of coupling can be very stuborn to remove If I remember correctly the internal pin is hardened and very difficult to drill out and would really need to be out of the boat and held in a jig as VicS suggests but that would mean removing the engine which is what I would imagine you are trying to avoid!
 
To remove one from the boat shaft (in place) I ended up having to cut it off with an angle grinder, luckily I had no intention to re-use it.

It breaks apart quite easily when attacked with a steel cutter /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
So far......
According to the Vetus agent locally, who has a good reputation for knowing his stuff, I do not have the usual 'pin' holding the flexible coupling onto the end of the shaft.
What seems odd is that the 'pin' appears to wobble about in the shaft. Whether it wobbles both ends I am not sure... silly I didn't check . The light was bad and the distance was difficult to see without hanging long into the bowels of the bilge.
So i need to prepare with good light, not do it after a heavy lunch, and to have a magnifying glass to enable the old eyes to get a good look!
The end that wobbles is the end that appears like a very fat screwdriver slot. Too fat for any screwdriver I've ever seen so perhaps it is a type of key or wedge fixing????
I am still reluctant to strike it too hard with a punch or drift as the shaft would need to be supported. I suppose drilling it out is an option but what do I then replace it with?
 
The very fat screwdriver slot turned out to be just that.
Someone in their wisdom had put a long 10mm bolt right through the shaft into the side of the flexible coupling, cutting it off level with the shaft and then putting this extremely chunky slot in the end.
Being a long way down below the cockpit sole it meant that we were hanging upside down and at the time with very little light. This w/e we got light on the subject and did the obvious thing and attacked it with a very big screwdriver that we could attach a spanner to the shaft for extra leverage.
It unsrewed with no problem at all !
The transom slung rudder was taken off, the shaft with prop was removed, the cutlass bearing taken out of the stern tube with massive pipe grips, and the prop removed fron the shaft.... all in about an hour and a half.
The shaft had several deep scores and pits in it around the seal area so a new shaft, cutlass bearing and stern gland is going back, but the relief of getting it all apart so easily in the end, was tremendous.

cheers, Scotty
 
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