Strut bushing change

[shag]

2008 SAN 230... Has anyone ever changed their strut bushing without removing the shaft?

[vvfdfirefighter]

To remove the bushing without removing the shaft you'd have to do a couple things.

1. Remove the Prop, You'll need a prop puller for this.
2. Remove the strut itself from the boat and slide it off the shaft.

If I were you I'd pull the shaft rather than dealing with having to re-align and sealing the strut back to the boat. In all fairness, I'm sure that strut had been laser-aligned to be in exact alignment from the factory. Pulling it will not only be difficult - 5200 is hstf to get off usually- but aligning it would be even more of a pain. Sure pulling the shaft is a PITA., you might have to remove the rudder to do so. I'm not exactly sure if you will. I've not really looked at the shaft/rudder location on my 220. Both of my Supra boats have an offset rudder so there is no need to do that when removing the shaft or prop.

Next you'll have to get the coupling off the shaft at the v-drive. To extrude it you might have to use the old long-bolts-and-socket trick. You can also use fender washers and threaded rod trick to install the new bearing.

[t.franscioni]

There's special cutlass bearing tools out there you can buy that claim removal without pulling the shaft. Problem is there so expensive it's easily worth ones afternoon to remove the drive shaft and just go with the 2$ thread stock and washer trick mentioned above. That's what I did and it worked just fine. Key is to buy a nice thick thread stock that won't break when you start putting the torque to it when pressing in the new bearing.

[peteSki]

I replaced the strut bushings a few years back on my 97 Ski Nautique and I chose to buy the shaft removal/strut bushing removal tool from Skidim so I didn't have to remove the strut. I did have to remove the rudder and uncouple from the transmission. As mine was a direct drive both these are very easy to get at once you remove the engine cover, floor etc... not sure on a v-drive. I did find the tool easy to use and it worked well. In my case I had to replace the drive shaft and repack the rudder so I was going to do that anyway. My decision not to remove the strut was that I was afraid I'd never get it back on there aligned right, or that I wouldn't be able to remove it at all due to the size and how long those bolts were untouched. In the end it worked out very well for me, new bushings, new shaft, did an engine alignment as well and all was working very well after with no follow up problems.