Knot 4 Me

Always cool to see video of surface drives at speed and being able to see the props spinning.

hblair

I have to admit I am an amateur. We have been chasing leaks and working on tuning we’re not appreciating the drives as much as we probably should. The whole “surface drives are no good around the docks” stories are wrong in this case anyway, the boat can be maneuvered around a dock like normal. Our shifter cables weren’t replaced and are a little stiff but are getting better with usage. Might still replace them we’ll see.

Getting on plane takes a little longer but we haven’t even been using our tabs to help, like I said we’ve been preoccupied with other stuff but we’re going to look into that now.

Having the props spin halfway out of the water is pretty cool, and rooster tail is a lot of fun. 😀

Tartilla

Interesting approach. If welded steel creates a sealed compartment, the oxidation process is arrested, as the oxygen is consumed by the steel's oxidation.

Brad Christy

Tartilla,

I can confirm.

For our model boats, the props are typically cast from beryllium copper, and can be hardened through heat treating. We typically wrap them in a stainless foil bag, and include a couple farmers head matches in the bag. These matches ignite at a lower temperature than the BeCu oxidizes, so they light off, consume all the oxygen, and the props don’t oxidize.

Thanks. Brad.

hblair

I modified the geometry on the winch stand again, I think it’s pretty close now. We ran it again yesterday. Ran great, it was accelerating strongly when I let off the gas at 76 mph at about 4900. So we’re definitely going to be at least the low eighties wide open. I don’t feel comfortable haulin tail with no seats and no way to brace ourselves lol

We ran down to the Neely Henry dam and were on the way back about 1/2 way to Gadsden when the left side screeched and quit. Engine started fine, put it in gear and quits. We Idle back to the ramp, pull out and the left prop won’t turn at all. Get back to the shop, drain the gear oil, hmm left side has about two tablespoons of burnt oil?? Drain right side for reference, it’s normal healthy level.

Somehow Shon and/or I apparently didn’t fill the left thrust tube. Head scratcher for sure. It’s been a year or two. We’re in the process of pulling it loose now. Amazing to me it ran probably 50 miles with almost no lubrication. We’ll get it fixed up.

hblair

Well after trying to remove the bearing off the old shaft with zero success I’ve got a new one coming in hopefully tomorrow. Apparently the inner and outer races both spun when the bearings seized. I tried pressing it off, a friend in a machine shop also tried. We ground on it to try to break it off but it’s friction welded lol

Been plugging away on a little wiring, finished the hatch switch and main fuel sending unit. It was showing 1/8 tank. I was hoping it was almost full lol. Hope the sending unit is accurate.

Got the winch stand done and Billy painted it today.

Hope to get the drive back together and run it this weekend.

resurrected

Thank you for sharing your success and failures! I have been there and can really beat myself up about it.

phughes69

Mistakes happen to the best of us. Ive been there with costly mistakes, but learned from it. Point is dont beat yourself up about it, **** happens.

Tartilla

Tuition at the University of experience.

One factor to take note. If you're not failing a bit...you're not trying hard enough.


Not sure what a new shaft is worth...but couldn't the bearing get cut down...ground off most of the inner race and machined to spec? If galled...then welded and machined?

hblair

We’d also got into the area of the shaft with the grinder where the seal rides, That seal only separates the gearcase oil from the shaft oil, and could have been run like that. But it’s not ideal for the two to mix.
The first machinist, after trying to press it off, tried turning the shaft on a lathe to remove the races but they are too hard and he broke some tools. He quit after that.
Second guy was going to try to press it off too and if that didn’t work try grinding them down then either sleeve the shaft or use spray weld then machine it back to the correct thickness.
I could have gotten out much cheaper that way if it would have worked but I made the decision to stop and order a new one. I could see him spending 2 weeks on it and something go wrong (shaft be out of true, etc) and then have to order a shaft anyway. And plus I like the idea of there being all new everything in the drives.