Cutlass bearing loose in strut

[justinsteele]

I recently removed the old worn cutlass bearing which was a beast to get out even with a strut pro. I believe there were two set screws on the port side and 1 that I missed on the stbd. The bearing and inside of the strut were full of buildup and I gently cleaned it all up with a wire brush. I just went to put the new bearing in place and it slid in by hand with ease. It is far tighter on the shaft than in the strut so without set screws it is just spinning freely in the strut. Are a couple set screws enough to hold this in place and is this normal? I expected it to be much more of a press fit. Measured with calipers and they are the same size. The old set screws were trash so I drilled them out and re taped the holes... hopefully there's enough meat to hold.

[oldcatsailor]

1990    hull 1064 when I first got the boat replaced the cotless bearing measurement in inches just pressed in no set screws,12 years later had yard replace half way threw the season, vibration dove and found cotless bearing almost all the way out pounded back in pulled boat put two set screws in held ,found broken motor bracket port side that had increased vibration replaced ,five years trouble free.

[KWKloeber]

I recently removed the old worn cutlass bearing which was a beast to get out even with a strut pro. I believe there were two set screws on the port side and 1 that I missed on the stbd. The bearing and inside of the strut were full of buildup and I gently cleaned it all up with a wire brush. I just went to put the new bearing in place and it slid in by hand with ease. It is far tighter on the shaft than in the strut so without set screws it is just spinning freely in the strut. Are a couple set screws enough to hold this in place and is this normal? I expected it to be much more of a press fit. Measured with calipers and they are the same size. The old set screws were trash so I drilled them out and re taped the holes... hopefully there's enough meat to hold.

The common way to fix that is to wax the OD of the bearing and reinstall it with epoxy.

[Ron Hill]

On a friends C34 a boatyard had installed a cutlass with red locktight!!  We had one hell of a time getting that old one out !!

Don't think I'd use epoxy on a cutlass bearing installation !

A thought

[KWKloeber]

Don't think I'd use epoxy on a cutlass bearing installation !

As I said, you need to wax the shell so the 'poxy releases.  That's how yards do it.

Ron,  the concept is to replace the missing annular space, not to adhere the bearing to the strut (i.e., the yard used the incorrect product.  Which of course, is not shocking.)
Think about it - why would it be acceptable to use epoxy to fix a sloppy rudder tube but not a sloppy strut?

[justinsteele]

As a follow up to anyone who stumbles across this in the future. I spoke with the people at general propeller where I bought the bearing who seemed very knowledgable. He said that there is often some inconsistency in the struts and using a little 5200 will take care of it. 5200 felt a little too permanent for me but looking back there was some white residue in the strut when it came out so I bet that's what the PO had done. I used just a couple very small smears of 4200 in the hopes I will hate myself less in the future and a couple set screws. The set screws alone didn't seem to have enough bite and I don't want issues in the spring. It's now a 10 year away problem I hope.