Worn stern tube bearings

[seaesta]

My prop shaft has a lot of slack (on the hard there is movement when the prop is grasped and pulled up/down and side to side). Natural thought is to replace the bearings. The boat is a Westerly 25 and I suspect the bearings remain untouched since original launch in 1966.
There are two bolt heads on a metal plate on the skeg where the prop emerges and I assume the right approach is to remove the shaft and then these bolts and then try and pull out the old bearings. Has anyone done this job before and can they advise on tricks/techniques for replacement.
Thanks
Martin

 

[tillergirl]

I am not familiar with a Westerley 25, but I would expect the bearing to be screwed onto a tube (the stern tube). So having removed the prop shalf and the two bolts holding the stern bearing, I would expect the bearing to unscrew. The tube might unscrew at the inboard end first but having removed the tube and stern bearing, it should be possible to separate the two. Refitting is a reversal of the procedure plus a bit of mastic.

 

[Mudplugger]

Have no experience of a Westerly 25, on the 33 however, there was a cutlass bearing on the outboard end of the shaft, (retained by 2 grub screws) and a bearing on the inboard end. Often undoing the grub screws will allow the cutless bearing to be removed without removing the shaft...BUT..if you havn't removed or inspected shaft for a while, probably worth the time and effort to take it out & check. On the 33 the shaft tube unscrewed from the end fitting so you can follow previous posts advice. but you will need to remove inboard end to withdraw, I think... HTH

 

[colvic987]

check if you have a stuffing gland on the outside, if so just unscrew and repack, if a cutless bearing then you will have to disconnect the prop and shaft to pull the cutless bearing out...

good luck

 

[MedMan]

I don't know the Westerly, but I have just replaced my cutlass bearing. I can only tell you about my boat, but it may help:

I did not undo the two bolts on the plate. On my boat what you call 'the plate' is actually a single casting that comprises the cutlass bearing housing in line with the shaft and a flat plate at right angles to that to secure it to the dead wood. The housing is threaded onto the end of the stern-tube and the stern-tube/cutlass bearing housing assembly is bedded into the hull with mastic. Disturbing either would have been totally un-necessary and would have given me a huge job trying to make them watertight again.

I removed the prop but not the shaft.

I removed the two grub screws that pass through the housing and the gripper bolt that runs under the housing and so released the cutlass bearing. I then gripped the 10mm or so of the cutlass bearing that protruded aft of the housing with a Stilson wrench and slowly but surely waggled it out. I then cleaned out the housing, lightly greased the new cutlass bearing and slid back in just a treat.