New Prop

New Prop

Look what the mailman brought me this week!!!
A brand new propeller from Indigo Electronics.
It looks so pretty I don't even want to install it
...but I will.

I'm not usually one for buying cheap tools, but
seeing as this will hopefully be a one-time job I
picked up this puller for eight bucks at my local
tool house.

I went out and wetted the prop nuts and cotter pin with penetrating
oil and will let it sink in overnight.
If anybody has any tips on dealing with old barnacles please email me!

Okay...this piece of shit lasted about five minutes, afer a
few turns on the end bolt it bent way out of shape and just
fell off the prop without moving it at all.

Here you see a comparison between my old prop and the new
Indigo which is supposedly designed just for the Atomic 4.
Getting the old prop off was a real bitch.
I ended up borrowing a heavy duty puller from work and using
a propane torch to loosen up the prop.
After all that it still didn't want to come off until I resorted to
using my impact wrench on the end of the puller with the
assistance of my pal Jamie*.
Next step will be to remove the shaft in order to replace the
cutless bearing.

* a power boater but a decent guy nonetheless.

Here's the new cutless bearing that I ordered from Catalina Direct

The old bearing and bronze shaft have been removed.
After thirty-four years the old shaft was showing a fair
bit of wear aroung the packing gland and bearing.
Seeing as though I've been spending money like a
drunken sailor already, I've got a new stainless shaft on
order from Catalina Direct.
I've also decided to start having my paycheques mailed
directly to them.

The first thing I did before
pressing the new bearing in
was to give the leading edge
a very, very light grind and
polish on the wheel.
Then after inspecting the
inside of the bore for burrs I
inserted the bearing from the
fore end and applied a touch
of grease to the outside of
the bearing.
Use caution to not get any
grease on the rubber
surfaces of the bearing!

Using the technique as laid
out on the IC34 Association
site, I pressed the bearing
into place.
A real easy job that only took
about fifteen minutes from
start to finish

Holy Smokes!!!
Five business days from the phone
call to order the new propshaft it
arrives at my front door.
Not only fast delivery but Catalina
Direct was able to supply it for a
little over half of what our own
machine shop at work was going to
charge me to make one!
The only catch is that the shafts
they stock are not an exact length
match to my old one.
This new shaft is about four inches
too long so I'll need to get it cut
down and a new keyway
machined...and it'll still be way
cheaper.

Yeah I know, this shot has absolutely nothing to do with boats or boating.
This is the head of the pack of over 700 riders participating in the annual "Test of Metal" mountain
bike race, an insanely grueling 67 kilometer race through the mountains of the Squamish Valley.
These guys rode past my house while I was installing the cutless bearing.

Here the shaft coupling has been cleaned up and repainted.
Those of you running Atomic 4's will know that getting the
transmission into a truly neutral position can sometimes be
difficult.
As an extra safety measure, I added a marker stripe on the
shaft coupling to make it easier to see if the shaft is rotating
should I have to work on the engine while underway.

It's not rocket science but the installation instructions for the PSS Shaftseal
are fairly detailed

I've been told that my boat is somewhat unique among C30's in
that it is fitted with a bronze stern tube.
Shown here after cleaning it up with some 400 wet/dry sandpaper.

The finished installation; of course some of the small fasteners had to be
located in one of the boat's "invisible" spots which required assembly by feel.