Shaft Project, Days 6-8

Fort Pierce, FL
No LL

Yesterday was a day off from the project. We rented a car and drove to Vero for Libby's last doctor appointment for this winter. Ouch! The car rental fee was double what it was a few weeks ago. It has to do with Easter week and the end of the season. Florida car rental companies expertly fine tune their prices to charge the highest rates at the times of peak demand. I think that their prices vary as much as 300%.

Well, were on the down slope of this project. Today a mechanic came to help. He installed 4 new motor mounts. He aligned the engine. He installed my new shaft coupler, and a replacement drive saver flexible coupler.

In the process I learned that the shaft log was no installed quite square. It pinched one side more then the other and made the engine alignment difficult.

After the mechanic left, I pulled off the shaft log one last time. It had fit into the bore hole very snugly. Then I filed away a bit of the bore hole it fits through to give it a bit of play. Then I resurfaced the butt end with fresh Marine Tex epoxy putty, and also put putty on the log where it enters the bore hole. When I bolted it back on, it pinched the one side again. Aha! I backed off on the bolts, and the log aligned nicely with the shaft. I'll let the putty cure in that position before I tighen the bolts.

Tomorrow we'll put things back together. I think we'll splash on Friday morning.

I'll hold off on giving a summary and post mortem until we're back in the water and I see how smoothly she runs.