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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | Ok it's raining hard near Kenora and for the time being I am
left stewing over putting my stainless prop on a reef yesterday while coming down off plane. ( would have beenfine had I kept running on plane). The prop isn't too bad but it certainly isn't good. My question is, should I swap out to an alum prop that I brought along or do I leave the ss prop since it's already kissed the reef. At what point is the damaged prop likely to cause damage to the engine through vibration? Sorry, can't post a pic from iPhone but would email one to someone who can.
Thanks,
Karl |
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Posts: 1716
Location: Mt. Zion, IL | find a prop repair shop and have them repair the SS prop. There is a guy that works out of his house an hour south of me, can't find his name/number at the moment, but it is 4 hrs. from chi-town. It is typically 60 dollars for a prop repair. Swap out for the aluminum one, and get the SS repaired so that it doesn't cause the prop shaft to gall the bearings. That will mean serious lower unit work. Vibration in the lower unit is suicide for a motor. |
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Posts: 2753
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Hi Karl, Send me the photo- [email protected]. It's a bit early in the trip to be kissing those shield rocks. Put the aluminum on & fish, in the mean time lets see how bad the SS looks. I've hammered mine back into shape a couple of times. Usually you don't loose mass, they just get bent out of shape.
Have fun!
Al
Edited by ESOX Maniac 7/14/2010 10:42 AM
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Posts: 2753
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Karl, Just got your photo's - ouch! Looks like prop shop time. The tear's will have to be welded.
How was fishing?
Al
Edited by ESOX Maniac 7/20/2010 11:24 AM
Attachments
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 Karl's Prop 1A.gif (101KB - 133 downloads)
Karl's Prop 2A.gif (108KB - 133 downloads)
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Posts: 2323
Location: Stevens Point, WI | I would be very cautious even using the boat motor with the prop looking like that. I'm betting you've got bigger problems like a bent prop shaft on the motor.
I hit a rock last year that dinged one blade and it bent my prop shaft, I'm betting you did more damage to your shaft than I did just by the look of your prop. Put the aluminum one on, then spin the prop, if you see any wiggle in the prop, or see that it's not going around straight, then you have a bent prop shaft. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if it's bent, I wouldn't be putting to much of a load on the motor. |
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Posts: 3480
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | That's a pretty hard hit....how is the prop shaft?
If it is spinning smoothly, you got lucky. Stick the aluminum on and fish...
Steve |
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | The aluminum has been running as smoothly as the ss out of the box. Now that the rig is on the trailer I'll spin it to see if there is any drift going on. Having never serviced and o/b before, or i/b for that matter is this something a fairly handy guy can take apart. I can check it myself. If it's not true. I'll bring the whole
rig in for further inspection.
Karl |
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Posts: 2323
Location: Stevens Point, WI | If the prop shaft is bent, unless you know how to disassemble a lower unit, no, this isn't something a typical guy can do. A new lower unit will be running you around a grand if I remember right. You should have been running the aluminum while in Canada, you would have just sheered the blades and wouldn't have to be worrying about the prop shaft more than likely. |
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Posts: 3480
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hi Karl,
if you have run it with the aluminum after the hit and it was smooth, you should be good to go.
If a rebuild of the lower unit is in store, it is definitely best left to trained repair specialists. There are shims that must be placed and the tolerances for error are extremely small...otherwise you lose performance dramatically.
I'm thinking you are o.k, though if you ran the motor with the aluminum after the strike. needless to say if that is the case you are very very lucky.
Steve |
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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | Ought to get it to the shop to check it out just in case that lower unit is damaged even to the slightest extent. I was there recently and they just happened to have some rebuilt alum and ss props from Michigan Wheel sitting on the counter. They looked great. $75 for the alum and about $140 for the ss. Good luck. |
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| < A new lower unit will be running you around a grand if I remember right>
If it were only a grand... $3,800 for a new lower unit on a 225 Optimax. Don't ask how I know...:-( |
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Posts: 90
| This is why we insure our boats boys |
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Posts: 265
Location: McGuire AFB, NJ | Ouch!!!!I run a stainless but have a aluminum back up in the boat at all times.
Sad sight I must say, hurts the feelings and the pocket book! |
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Location: Des Moines IA | Yeah my lower unit was 3750$. |
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