I am attaching the write up my guy did who repaired my shaft log .... interesting. I will attach some pics as well...
Spring 2021. Catalina 34 was taking in steady slow stream of water at time of launch. After inspection and tightening bellows, leak still persisted. Hauled boat back on the hard. Slid bellows forward and discovered the shaft log tube was almost destroyed, with it being completely split along bottom of it, with also a tiny amount of wear into hull( hence where the water was seeping into boat). Could put fingers through bottom of shaft log tube. Stainless shaft was much out of alignment and had been wearing probably for quite awhile. Engine mounts looked normal and no signs of wear. Bellows and packing also showed signs of heavy wear. Proper repair would be drop rudder, remove shaft completely, bore out old shaft log tube, install new one and glass into hull. Adjuster came and recommended not replacing it but rather sleeve over existing tube with PVC. That caused me countless sleepless nights trying to figure out how that would be possible. Most of us know PVC and epoxy do not bond well together. Also shaft log tube was supposed to be 1 5/8 o.d. and PVC only comes in 1 1/2 and 2 inch inside diameter, with a rather heavy wall making it way over the proper o.d. of 1 5/8 i desired. A fellow mate at our local club suggested sizing up one of his tapered carbon fiber sailboard masts (we both used to sailboard in our much younger days). Miraculously it was thin walled and a perfect match! Fit snug over existing damaged tube and left me with exactly 1 5/8 inch o.d. I was concerned about cutting 3 inches off a 500 dollar carbon fiber mast but my matey assured me that although we often talk of sailboarding the gear had been sitting stagnant in his locker for over 10 years! So i made the cut and glassed it in heavily. Got new packing fitting and bellows. Then came the hard part. Re aligning engine. Soaked mounts with PB blaster overnight. Freed up all mounts. The engine was sitting quite low in comparison to straight line of shaft. Hub jumped up a good 1/2 inch when i separated it from engine. I adjusted engine up until shaft looked as centered as possible in shaft log tube visually. Then slid shaft back out of hub and put bellows and packing into place. Then slid shaft back into hub and hub up to engine. Checked alignment with feeler guage (around .003) and torqued everything back into place. Launched boat and tested with a local boat mechanic present. He said alignment was perfect. To be clear i was lacking confidence or desire to tackle this job, and i did as much research online as possible on the subject. That led me to the most confusing part. That the boat will change shape, possibly drastically, in the water and would have to realign once it relaxes in water for a few days. ??? How would i see position of shaft in shaft tube with bellows all in place and clamped tight.
Research said remove hub from engine and use feel to see if it's centered in tube. So i did, and sure enough it changed and was off again. So i loosened mounts, and went at it again, until i felt shaft was centered in tube and mated with engine at same time. Then re torqued everything back into place again. We need to test run boat again to check for cavitation and probably will need fine tuning again with the feeler guage. For now she is leak free and floating peacefully at her berth. That is my story and i'm sticking to it! Take care everyone.
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Spring 2021. Catalina 34 was taking in steady slow stream of water at time of launch. After inspection and tightening bellows, leak still persisted. Hauled boat back on the hard. Slid bellows forward and discovered the shaft log tube was almost destroyed, with it being completely split along bottom of it, with also a tiny amount of wear into hull( hence where the water was seeping into boat). Could put fingers through bottom of shaft log tube. Stainless shaft was much out of alignment and had been wearing probably for quite awhile. Engine mounts looked normal and no signs of wear. Bellows and packing also showed signs of heavy wear. Proper repair would be drop rudder, remove shaft completely, bore out old shaft log tube, install new one and glass into hull. Adjuster came and recommended not replacing it but rather sleeve over existing tube with PVC. That caused me countless sleepless nights trying to figure out how that would be possible. Most of us know PVC and epoxy do not bond well together. Also shaft log tube was supposed to be 1 5/8 o.d. and PVC only comes in 1 1/2 and 2 inch inside diameter, with a rather heavy wall making it way over the proper o.d. of 1 5/8 i desired. A fellow mate at our local club suggested sizing up one of his tapered carbon fiber sailboard masts (we both used to sailboard in our much younger days). Miraculously it was thin walled and a perfect match! Fit snug over existing damaged tube and left me with exactly 1 5/8 inch o.d. I was concerned about cutting 3 inches off a 500 dollar carbon fiber mast but my matey assured me that although we often talk of sailboarding the gear had been sitting stagnant in his locker for over 10 years! So i made the cut and glassed it in heavily. Got new packing fitting and bellows. Then came the hard part. Re aligning engine. Soaked mounts with PB blaster overnight. Freed up all mounts. The engine was sitting quite low in comparison to straight line of shaft. Hub jumped up a good 1/2 inch when i separated it from engine. I adjusted engine up until shaft looked as centered as possible in shaft log tube visually. Then slid shaft back out of hub and put bellows and packing into place. Then slid shaft back into hub and hub up to engine. Checked alignment with feeler guage (around .003) and torqued everything back into place. Launched boat and tested with a local boat mechanic present. He said alignment was perfect. To be clear i was lacking confidence or desire to tackle this job, and i did as much research online as possible on the subject. That led me to the most confusing part. That the boat will change shape, possibly drastically, in the water and would have to realign once it relaxes in water for a few days. ??? How would i see position of shaft in shaft tube with bellows all in place and clamped tight.
Research said remove hub from engine and use feel to see if it's centered in tube. So i did, and sure enough it changed and was off again. So i loosened mounts, and went at it again, until i felt shaft was centered in tube and mated with engine at same time. Then re torqued everything back into place again. We need to test run boat again to check for cavitation and probably will need fine tuning again with the feeler guage. For now she is leak free and floating peacefully at her berth. That is my story and i'm sticking to it! Take care everyone.
Sent from my iPhone