Bumped a prop yesterday... Twice!

[timinfla2]

I just spoke with my buddy Ray and he gave me a good recommendation for down in Ft Lauderdale, as well as advice on how to pull a prop as I've never done so before.

Thankfully, MM had to haul it out for some warranty work, so it'll be a dry job.

I'll let you know how it goes.

-Tim

 

[Larry]

Run each engine out of the water at 4000 rpms and check the outdrive vibration. There won't be any doubt if you have a problem. Remember to run some water through it while you are testing.

That would be a negative on this approach! Either V drive or stern drive or any drive with an internal combustion engine....

Remove and Prop Scan, only way to go.

 

[Fishnut]

Run each engine out of the water at 4000 rpms and check the outdrive vibration. There won't be any doubt if you have a problem. Remember to run some water through it while you are testing.

That would be a negative on this approach! Either V drive or stern drive or any drive with an internal combustion engine....

Remove and Prop Scan, only way to go.

No guts no glory. LOL

 

[wingless]

Wing, the propscan data you posted looks intriguing, but what did the $1100 include? Was that only the balancing, or did they also charge you to haul out, remove props, etc?

Infla, the charge was an hourly rate to bring them from fine to perfect. One prop was already fine at Class 2, the other was already good at Class 1. Both were brought to Class S, which is dead nuts on, a technical term.

The charge also included the balance, as shown in my post.

This was a carry in / carry out service. They also offer remove / replace service for a little more.

The REALLY BIG downside to dumping bucks on props is whacking them afterwards. I've never whacked 'em yet, but a REALLY BAD day would be whacking 'em now.

 

[timinfla2]

Yup, agreed. It's not a fun lesson to learn.

 

[timinfla2]

Well hopefully the saga has been brought another step toward being closed.

I received the props back today from Mark Tomlinson at Precision Prop Technology. This guy was amazing - I sent Amy to the shop to pick them up and I realized I didn't have the cotter pins, and he ran up to the local hardware store and gave them to Amy - didn't charge her a red cent.

Pre-scan the port side was class 3 and the starbord was class 2. Now they're both class S's. I asked the guy if it was worth it to go to Class 1 and he said on a non-gofast boat where you're not spinning at 6000 RPM, nah - I'd be fine with Class S.

I took the key out, and marked the shaft where the hub slid up to and then reinstalled the keys, and both props went on like butter with no encouragement right up to their marks.

I torqued the nuts down, installed the cotter pins and once high tide hits, I'll be taking her out for a test drive.

Here's some pics of the final readout - the initial ones were printed off and given to me in hard copy, so I can't show you them here...

Thanks to all those like Ray and Randy who helped me with the advice about prop removal and re-install. And thanks to the un-named diver that nearly made me crap myself when he (mistakenly) told me I had them on backwards.