I have a 1987 28' Carver Mariner. In the fall I want to pull the props and have them checked/ballanced. I have a little vibration but not too bad. I have rope cutters as well and not sure if they will need to be removed to attach a prop puller??? I was told that if I heat the props near the shaft that they will "pop right off" & wouldn't need a prop puller. Have you heard of doing this?
PULL PROPS
- Thread starter JLuvisi
- Start date
I've had to heat the and ice the shaft, with a prop puller as tight as I could get it, you will need a puller. When you pull them, make sure you have the big nut on the shaft about 1/16 of an inch away from prop contact, the first time I pulled a prop I did not do that and sent the prop 25 ft. across the yard, lucky no one was in the way.
Ah yes, I see that Jim learns the same way I do. "Whoa...you guys see THAT". While my prop did not fly 25 foot, it did carry every bit of 6 foot and that would have been plenty to get hurt with.
I guess after the night of having the BFP tightened up with the BFW, while two guys heated the prop with two propane torches, it seems a little rediculous to me to say that "a little heat and they will pop right off" is a good strategy.
You need a good strong puller. Tighten it up, making absolutely sure it is pulling 100% dead on straight. Once you get a good strong strain on that prop until you are afraid any more tension would risk warping the shaft/strut/puller, then take a heavy steel head mallet because you want the most "shock" reverberation possible and strike the end of the shaft with it, again dead on straight. Your not trying to beat the prop off. You don't want to bend your shaft, or even try to drive the shaft forward at all. What you want is that ringing shock of the steel hitting the shaft to set up a shock wave to cause the pores of the metal that are binding together to momentarily come apart releasing the friction and allowing the tight strain of the puller to do the rest. If you give the end of the shaft a good smart ringing blow, 80% of the time that prop is going to literally pop off the shaft, almost explosively. The other 20% of the time you repeat the process, then apply heat, then smack the shaft again. Next comes the cutting torch and hacksaw.
Don't get one of those "Toys" of prop pullers. Truth is they actually work about 75% of the time, but if you have a prop that is really tight, they deform enough to not pull 100% straight and do more harm than good. You are safer using an extra heavy duty puller than a light duty one as the heavy guy won't deform and the larger size actually makes it easier to visually pick up on situations where it is not pulling straight.
bp
bp
I guess after the night of having the BFP tightened up with the BFW, while two guys heated the prop with two propane torches, it seems a little rediculous to me to say that "a little heat and they will pop right off" is a good strategy.
You need a good strong puller. Tighten it up, making absolutely sure it is pulling 100% dead on straight. Once you get a good strong strain on that prop until you are afraid any more tension would risk warping the shaft/strut/puller, then take a heavy steel head mallet because you want the most "shock" reverberation possible and strike the end of the shaft with it, again dead on straight. Your not trying to beat the prop off. You don't want to bend your shaft, or even try to drive the shaft forward at all. What you want is that ringing shock of the steel hitting the shaft to set up a shock wave to cause the pores of the metal that are binding together to momentarily come apart releasing the friction and allowing the tight strain of the puller to do the rest. If you give the end of the shaft a good smart ringing blow, 80% of the time that prop is going to literally pop off the shaft, almost explosively. The other 20% of the time you repeat the process, then apply heat, then smack the shaft again. Next comes the cutting torch and hacksaw.
Don't get one of those "Toys" of prop pullers. Truth is they actually work about 75% of the time, but if you have a prop that is really tight, they deform enough to not pull 100% straight and do more harm than good. You are safer using an extra heavy duty puller than a light duty one as the heavy guy won't deform and the larger size actually makes it easier to visually pick up on situations where it is not pulling straight.
bp
bp
Grady Wahoo
Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2005
- RO Number
- 16408
- Messages
- 438
To add to the humor, my first experience pulling a prop was with a home made puller I made in a machine shop I was working in at the time. A couple of round 1" thick pieces of stainless steel, one slotted to fit over the shaft the other with a large pointed bolt to mate to the center drilled hole at the end on the shaft, 3 bolt pattern and 4 for threaded rods to join them. Nice universal puller I made, a little on the heavy side, when the 22" prop came off, with the puller-I sank like a rock! Novice scuba diving at it's finest, had to reach bottom, put prop/puller combo down to put a tad more air in my BC. LOL
Why wait until the end of the season to fix your prop. Every time that shaft vibrates, it is getting damaged a tiny bit. By the end of the season, you may have a more expensive repair on your hands and budget! Take the time to get the prop repaired now and save yourself money and time later in the season.
Grady.......funny story!
Grady.......funny story!
I have two prop pullers for sale here is some information. There are several ways to pop the prop a puller is the best and sometimes some heat, many times the prop will pop if just using a cap prop nut to screw onto the shaft end and wack after the nuts are removed they are cheap about $50 bucks dont heart the shaft and threads. If they havent been off for some time they will be tough to remove. I have two different size Algonac pullers to sell they are Model Number Proeller Diameter Capacity Status Weight (lbs.) Price
MMMA 10-24" On backorder. Manufacturer has no current schedule on delivery date. 13 $293.53 $249.50
MMMB 24-80" On backorder. Manufacturer has no current schedule on delivery date. 35 $556.94 $473.40 $150 for the 10-24" and $250 for the 24-80" shipping about $30 bucks UPS ground, The are well used and in excellant condition.
Captain Steve Bielenda captainswbrb2@gr5tgmail.com
MMMA 10-24" On backorder. Manufacturer has no current schedule on delivery date. 13 $293.53 $249.50
MMMB 24-80" On backorder. Manufacturer has no current schedule on delivery date. 35 $556.94 $473.40 $150 for the 10-24" and $250 for the 24-80" shipping about $30 bucks UPS ground, The are well used and in excellant condition.
Captain Steve Bielenda captainswbrb2@gr5tgmail.com
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2000
- RO Number
- 824
- Messages
- 2,407
That's one of those things where you only warn someone once -"Hey, you might want to throw that nut back on or that wheels going for a ride when it pops loose" - and when you get shrugged off or told to mind your own business, sit and watch. It's worth it ;-) A well-stuck, good sized wheel will come loose like a cannon shot!
Tef-gel is AWESOME stuff when you put the wheel back on. Very, very, VERY useful stuff around boats, with all the aluminum and stainless marriages, and various other dissimilar metal contacts.
Tef-gel is AWESOME stuff when you put the wheel back on. Very, very, VERY useful stuff around boats, with all the aluminum and stainless marriages, and various other dissimilar metal contacts.
Jluvisi:
How do you plan on doing this?
If you are planning on having the boat hauled at a boat yard then I would expect the yard to have a prop puller. Pay them to remove the props, it will be worth it. You could spend a couple hundred dollars getting a decent prop puller and spend hours of your time where they could probably have them both off and charge you an hours labor.
Heating the shaft will NOT loosen the prop. Heat expands metal, and you need the shaft to get smaller. Heating the prop would help but I would be really surpised if the prop just fell off from just heating. There are also risks associated with applying heat; if the shaft heats up and damages the cutlass bearing you will be looking at a lot more work and expense.
If your objective is to eliminate the vibration then I would plan on doing more than just balancing the props. If a prop is obviously damaged or out of balance that *might* be the extent of your problem. The vibration might be from something else and it would be foolish to stop short of finding it while the boat was out of the water.
As a minimum I would have the shaft aligment checked and corrected. If the yard has the equipment (which isn't much, many yards do) then have them check the shafts for being straight. This really amounts to setting up a "dial indicator" and turning the shaft slowly and checking to see what the run out variation is.
While you are at it, this is the best time to change the packing on the shaft log.
Rod
How do you plan on doing this?
If you are planning on having the boat hauled at a boat yard then I would expect the yard to have a prop puller. Pay them to remove the props, it will be worth it. You could spend a couple hundred dollars getting a decent prop puller and spend hours of your time where they could probably have them both off and charge you an hours labor.
Heating the shaft will NOT loosen the prop. Heat expands metal, and you need the shaft to get smaller. Heating the prop would help but I would be really surpised if the prop just fell off from just heating. There are also risks associated with applying heat; if the shaft heats up and damages the cutlass bearing you will be looking at a lot more work and expense.
If your objective is to eliminate the vibration then I would plan on doing more than just balancing the props. If a prop is obviously damaged or out of balance that *might* be the extent of your problem. The vibration might be from something else and it would be foolish to stop short of finding it while the boat was out of the water.
As a minimum I would have the shaft aligment checked and corrected. If the yard has the equipment (which isn't much, many yards do) then have them check the shafts for being straight. This really amounts to setting up a "dial indicator" and turning the shaft slowly and checking to see what the run out variation is.
While you are at it, this is the best time to change the packing on the shaft log.
Rod