Slightly bent prop shaft

We hit some rocks last year in our 2007 Bayliner 195. Unfortunately we bent the 4 blade stainless steel prop so we had that repaired by a prop shop. We took our boat out Sunday following a long winter and my husband noticed a very slight vibration with initial acceleration. The vibration seems to level out once the boat has planed.

He took the prop back to the shop to ensure it was properly balanced and it is. The shop owner offered to look at the prop shaft and bearings so my husband brought the boat in this morning. The mechanic used a dial indicator and the shaft apparently has a bend of 3/16".

We were told that we can replace the shaft with a nice, used one for $350.00 including labor. Does this sound reasonable because I've been researching on various forums and that price seems quite high???

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

here's a search for bent prop shaft here on iboats. http://forums.iboats.com/search.php?searchid=1069507
in there somewhere i'll venture to say someone will talk about straightening a bent prop shaft back to tolerance... no idea if it can be done, but it sounded like a fesaible idea perhaps... good luck with the search..

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

.010 is a slight bend, .187 (aka 3/16") is a huge bend for a prop shaft. I wouldn't even try to straighten that much. You really need a new one. I would also be concerned with the gears. Whatever you hit had to put a lot of pressure on the gears.

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

Sounds like a fair price to me. New the shaft alone is about $425.

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

you dont list what kind of drive, but I usually charge a bit more to remove the lower, completely dis-assemble it, do the repair(GEN II prop shaft $479.00) , refill with oil and remount.

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

wont a Gen One prop shaft fit?

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

Nope, different part number

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

auh, good to know, thanks

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

Thanks everyone. I suck at boats and very new to the whole deal and I think my memory has failed me in quoting 3/16". I realize that would constitute quite a large bend and we were told "slight". The bend is not visible to the naked eye (sorry, probably not much help w/my description but I hesitate to try and recall the exact bend measurement).

The perplexing part of all of this is that my husband did not feel the vibration at all last year and we ran the boat with the damaged propeller on at least five occasions. We put the boat in storage for the winter and had it dewinterized a few weeks ago. We took the propeller in for repair at that time also. We were told the propeller damage was not significant but we are new to boating and want to keep everything in tip top shape. Initially the propeller was damaged when we hit some rocks at the bottom of a lake. We were moving very slowly and an island jutted out to the left of us that we didn't notice.

So just last Sunday, with our first outing, the vibration (note: I personally do not notice any vibration) my husband feels is only there when he first accelerates.

Would you recommend a second opinion?

Re: Slightly bent prop shaft

Well from what you are saying now I would deffinately get a second opinion. You drove it 5 times with the damaged prop and didn't feel any vibration and was told the damage was not significant. Also said you personally didn't feel anything now. It sounds more like there may not be any problem with it. All boats will have some vibration at some time or another.