Further help needed with HT27 cutlass bearing removal

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  • 29th October 2016 at 5:30 pm #12349

      I am now on the hard and have removed the port propeller shaft in order to replace the cutlass bearing. However, the set up is not what I expected! The stern tube is fibreglass, moulded into the hull. Inside that is what I assume is the cutlass bearing- about 2mm are protruding from the stern tube and it consists of a copper tube with a bonded rubber inner lining (2 grub screws hold it in place). This rubber lining runs smoothly for about 23 inches up the stern tube to where a collar of some description lies (also about 10 inches in from the forward end of the stern tube). Should I put a puller on this collar and try to extract the 23 inch long section? I am a bit worried that this collar might be screwed in somehow rather than just pressed in, especially having read Lionel ‘s post a while back about an HT MK3 stern tube. Any further advice from anyone? The boat is an 1991 version of the HT27.

      30th October 2016 at 8:47 pm #12351

        Hi Alister. I note the above. The prop shaft bearings themselves will only be around 4/5 inches long. I expect you are getting confused with a mud deposit that is probably lining the inside of the fibreglass tube further in. You need to figure out exactly where the bearings end and the mud begins. Then pull out the old bearings as mentioned before,

        Your comments on deep sea seals… Replace them with PSS seals that are fed with water from the coolant water. This type will cope with mud berths. An alternative would be Volvo seals. very cheap and simple but need to be bled in mud berths on every tide/use. More info if needed. Geoff Linter

        31st October 2016 at 2:07 pm #12353

          Thanks again Geoff&Chrissie. I will look to see if it is mud rather than rubber I am seeing after about 4 to 5″ of bearing and get back to tell you if that solves the problem.
          Thanks,
          Alastair

          1st November 2016 at 8:09 pm #12354

            Geoff&Chrissie, You were right! It was mud and the bearings were only 4″ long. Real horrors to get out though. So tight they stripped the thread on my home made puller. For anyone interested here’s how I got them out. I had to weaken the bearings by cutting along them with a reciprocating saw in three places (not as dodgy as it sounds, just take it slow). I then started to collapse the bearings with a cold chisel. However, both began to move backwards in the prop shaft housing (free at least, so progress as far as I was concerned). But, they still needed pulling out. How to do this when you can’t introduce a washer wide enough to cover the bearing since there is a collar at the top of the shaft housing, as I mentioned previously. Of course maybe the top of the shaft housing can be unscrewed thus removing the collar, I don’t know. Instead, I fabricated an oval washer (36 mm long and 25 mm wide) with a 10 mm central hole for a 10 mm threaded bar to pass through and two small holes for copper guide wires. I pushed this washer sideways through the bearings from the outside aft end then turned it face on by pulling on the copper guide wires. I then pushed a 1 metre threaded 10 mm bar through the hole in the washer, pushing it right up the shaft housing past the collar at the top until it protruded into the bilge area (holding the oval washer in place with the wires). I then put on two nuts at the inside end of the bar and pushed and pulled it all the way back down till the nuts hit the oval washer. I then put a piece of scaffolding tube 6″ long on the bar outside the boat and with two large washers and a nut tightened all this onto the aft end of the shaft housing. I finally added two nuts on the aft end of the shaft, tightened against each other. Using this puller I wound out the bearings, using the last two nuts to stop the bar turning while I tightened the other nut up against the large washer.
            Cleaned up the shaft housings and I’m now ready for new bearings.
            Thanks for all the advice.
            Alastair

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