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« on: April 12, 2019, 01:17:10 PM »
Hi David -
I finally got my 1990 flange off the original shaft last weekend after fighting with it on and off for a couple of weeks. I tried using a standard puller and managed to budge it maybe an 1/8" and then it just seemed to jamb up completely. I ended up ordering the Buck Algonquin 5 inch puller 50MCP00500. I had a breaker bar on the center of the puller in the bilge and would crank on the shaft using the propeller. That didn't solve the problem by itself. I tried heating the flange a few times with the MAP gas torch, protecting everything around it with aluminum baking tins but that didn't work. I had soaked it for days with BP Blaster including filling the set screw holes, that didn't work.
I had actually given up but said to my son, "let's try one more time" and he cranked on the prop while I hit the flange with a hammer. As I hit it it would drive the shaft forward so he'd pull it back and I'd whack it again while he cranked and we finally got the flange moving again. After a couple of turns I went back to the prop and we helped each other keep it turning. It must have been halfway off before it wasn't a major struggle to turn the shaft. It was a very satisfying sound when we finally heard the flange drop off the shaft inside the boat.
I'm not sure what combination of the things we did actually worked or if it really took all of them together but nothing was moving until I started whacking away with the hammer while he cranked on the prop.
At no point in time did we put any pressure or even touch the flange on the transmission to to this. I actually raised the engine up a bit to get it out of the way.
When this was done we pulled the cutlass bearing which allowed us to pull the shaft out of the boat to the side of the rudder. I had hoped we could keep the original bronze shaft. I was going to take it to have it checked for straightness but once it was out I could see irregularities where the cutlass bearing was and it had a significant groove where the stuffing box made contact and it had been eating cutlass bearings faster than it used to. The bottom line is I could have just cut the shaft and saved a bunch of time and energy since I ended up replacing the shaft anyway. A new shaft was not in the budget but I didn't feel like I had a choice. I just picked up my new stainless shaft today.
Good luck,
Jim
