bertram31.com

Hi Guys,

I have a question ,because iám lazy.!!

I wan't to change my stuffingboxes for Tide Marine seals.

Now I have to pull the shaft offcourse , what I see is the following ,looking at the flange there is a key and 2 square bolts with securing nuts...
Do I have to take of the flange that is bolted to the gear , and will I find a big nut inside the flange , or losing the bolts will be enough ??
I wish I done it when the deck was off. there is not much space for my big hands to get under the ZF's

any comments will be of great help !

Gert

Gert,

Cease and desist! The Tides system is not the quality dripless shaft seal that they would have you believe. It's been responsible for numerous failures including catastrophic.

If you're going for the dripless shaft seals, then by all means, go with the PIY-PSS system. Best on the market by far. (The link goes directly to PYI's European marketing & in Dutch)

For N. America & English see: http://www.shaftseal.com/en/categories

thanx Cap.

Those I can buy here aswell ,

is the flange only held by the 2 bolts and the key , or are there more surprises?

Gert, What type of flange do you have? Split type? Some flanges do have a large threaded nut at shaft end..I have the split type with key and locking bolts like you mentioned. PYI dripless way to go..BH

raccor in the bilge worth at least 1/4 of a knot-----------smart man!!!! must be bob h 31 behia mar.

That is some smooth looking work down there.

I have the seals the Capt. is speaking of. He is right. 5 years and no problems.

If you have two bolts you either have a spilt coupling like in the picture or they are set bolts in a standard coupling.

If a split coupling much better. Remove all bolts in coupling and if rusty spray down with a penetrating spray.

Remove bolts from gear flange and seperate the two flanges.

If you have room to get a puller in between the two, use it. If not a trick is to use a socket under the size of the shaft.

Place the socket on the shaft face facing the gear box and slide up to the gear coupling while holding the socket in place.

Get longer coupling bolts and install. Use at least four. Tighten evenly at little at a time to pull the coupling faces together and push out the shaft.

You may need to start off with a short socket and go to a long one to get it all the way off.

If it doens't start to move after tightening the bolts use heat. Any real force could bend or warp the coupling faces so you have to be carefull.

Have the coupling face checked for the face being true once out and use a metal straight edge to check the gear coupling.

Lube with tef gel when installing again and check and make sure there is no gauling on the shaft or coupling, if they is dress it off.

Don't use a hammer to bang off as that can damage the coupling face.


I've taken off hundreds and hundreds of couplings and most were a real chore. Many neede to be cut off.

Do not be tempted to leave attached to the gear and use a slide hammer to remove shaft from coupling.

And when installing the new glands, only use liquid soap as a lube, never use any petrolium based product or it will never seal right.

Has anyone seen a new, production, boat with a bilge as clean, neat and organized as that? Thanks for making us all look like slackers, and giving me something to aspire to as welll, Bob H!

WOW !!! Nice bilge !!!

His bilge looks better than the outside of my boat!!!

Looks good, but everything's gonna rust without the nice Cummins oil mist.

Mine looked like that, once upon a time.....maybe in March, 1972.....

UV

I look at the pictures of Bob H's boat and my imagination gets more expensive...

Every time I see pictures of Bob's boat. I think boy my looks bad, But I'm in the water and fishing.

bobH.

How do you drain water from those Racors? Do they not have drains on the bottom?

Vic,

Cummins oil mist? is the the same as Corrosion X and lacquer thinner?

Yeah Mikey, use the CX mist on the top of the motors & the Cummins mist on the bottom. A little Dawn in the bilge water now & then keeps the proportions just right.....& pump at night.

UV

Vic,
Maybe you need to explain more precisely. I'm missing something. Corrosion-X on top? Cummins mix on bottom? Also some of the newer stewards may not have read your earlier posts on the subject. Also your strategy works on gassers as well for preservation.
Thanks, u da man

Blowby motor oil Mikey.

Most all of the Cummins 6B engines - prior to the electronic QSB models - have a crankcase vent system that is rustic to say the least - there is a half inch elbow on the upper port side of the engine with some half inch heater hose attached that extends down alongside the block and dumps into the bilge......Walker AirSeps will put the crankcase vapors back into the motor intake air, but I'm not a fan of them due to restrictions in their internal check valve, a/k/a a ping pong ball. Tony Athens makes a really neat system that appears way better than the AirSeps. He also suggests the "budget puke bottle" system, where the heater hose is inserted in an empty quart oil bottle to catch some of the oily vapors. That's my method, being the cheap s.o.b. that I am. So the Cummins motors spew a nice oily vapor that keeps rust away in your bilge. For the rest of the mechanicals, use a mix of CX and lacquer thinner:

The CX/lacquer thinner fog is Da Judge's invention: mix regular (red can) Corrosion X 50/50 with lacquer thinner and spray the engines, gears, mounts, etc. with it. A pump bottle works fine. This prevents rust on the engine and is better than straight CX as it does not leave as much of a sticky film to attract dirt. None of our engines should have a speck of rust on them, not a speck. Rust kills more motors, gears, generators, motor mounts, pumps, etc than untold running hours.

Lacquer thinner is not particularly explosive, but be careful and let the sprayed areas air out well and dry up before starting anything. A couple of applications a year will do the trick. Avoid getting the CX in the shaft packings as it may damage some synthetic packing materials.

UV

I'm having a hard time even finding CX. Wasn't always that way.

[img][img]http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/g47 ... 8/foto.jpg[/img]

Tried to pull of the flanges every way I knew, rust inhibitor , heat , bolts , you name it !!

Had a look at the aft bearing ........ and this was my desision !!

tommorrow ,I will assemble every thing NEW !!

that is a beauty of a bilge , you can have an open hart chirurgy down there !![/img]

Can't tell you how many times I had to do that.
Assemble with Tef gel and they will come apart like butter in the future.

Ok, looking at Bob's bilge, now I want to pull my engines back out, and strip the paint i put down and gelcoat the hull.

God that is clean. What a bilge. I would say that if there was an award for the best looking bilge Bob would win it.

Vic wrote:Looks good, but everything's gonna rust without the nice Cummins oil mist.

I'm with you guys all the way....Bob gets the top award for his bildge.

But if I know Mr Higgins like I think I know Mr Higgins you will never see Cummins oil or Rust accumalate in his bildge.

Gert, you did the right thing by cutting those shafts. Like Bruce said, I have done that same thing a time or two my self......even if you did get the old couplings off of the old shaft, by the time you cleaned the bore they would never fit correctly again......just ain't worth the fight.

By the way Gert, you have a GREAT looking 31.

hb

Thats REALITY sometimes. If it was MIG welded it would have been easier to get apart...LOL!

Once the corrosion sets in they are all but impossible to get apart. Especially when you are working in a bligle. If you had it on a bench maybe but thats not possible in this situation.

Slick trick Bruce...I lathered them up good never seize and tef gel..Mikey, the thumb screw is bout 2" off the bilge, havent had to drain em yet, hope thats enough..the time it took to fair that small area in the bilge is nothing compared to the whole journey..im not fishin yet but when I do...It will be worth it..No Doubt...BH

Bob- Can you raise them a bit? It really helps to be able to slip a small plastic bucket under there to catch the surge of fuel that comes out when you unscrew the plug. I've never been able to manage a pan without making a mess. Wouldn't want to mess up THAT beautiful bilge.