Drive shaft to motor alignment

[RJP56]

Argh! Hit some rocks the other night going 5mph. Did some major damage underneath. Prop, driveshaft, and bent strut. Also
sheared the rudder off! Looking at the rudder it had some major fatigue right where it came out of the rudder port. only about a
third of the 1"+ brass shaft looked clean and shiny. Question is how do i make sure the strut, shaft and coupling line up to the
transmission? Ive read that you want .003" runout with the tranny. I can do this with a feeler gauge. Havent been back to the boat yet. Can you move the motor around? should i leave the strut slightly loose while aligning then tighten after? any help will be much appreciated.

[surroundsound64]

What boat would be helpful to know.

[TX-Foilhead]

It's the same on every boat, just harder to get to with a Vdrive. There is a long, very good tutorial on YouTube and CCF about the whole process. You'll start with the strut and the shaft alignment, then do the shaft and transmission. The process is simple once you understand what your trying to do. It can be be a pain in the but though and it helps to have and extra person.

[TX-Foilhead]

Almost forgot, .003 is the max, shoot for perfect. I've been able to get mine to .001 just takes a little longer.

[RJP56]

Its a 2001 Air Nautique DD. Think i'm all set. installed everything today, went fairly smoothly except trying to reach the nuts on top of the strut which is under the factory installed ballast. Thank God for my daughter's thin arms! Everything lined up perfectly. Didnt
have to move motor. Just snugged up strut, tightened the coupling then the strut. When I removed bolts from coupling ,it was within a couple thousanths. Sweet. took her for a ride tonight before putting seats and all back. runs smooth as silk. How much leakage is expected from rudder packing? Probably getting 5-6 drops a minute. This Ok? probably 2-3 from drive shaft packing.

[DanielC]

That amount of dripping is OK, but it can be tightened up a little, if your boat is moored. If you keep your boat on a trailer, it is fine.

Once your boat is warm, right after pulling it out of the water, with the engine off, carefully spin the propeller by hand. It should spin freely, and smoothly. It should not feel tight on one half of a revolution, and loose on the other half.

Way cool your daughter is helping you work on the boat!

[RJP56]

Thanks, ya the dripping is while we are underway, almost nothing when we are sitting and the boat is kept on a trailer except for 2
weeks a year. I can turn the prop freely almost with a couple fingers all the way around.

[TX-Foilhead]

You can get the rudder packing tight, it not using water for cooling like the shaft.

[RJP56]

Yeah your right, just got to get my hand and a wrench down in there.