petrolhead
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2003
- Messages
- 614
Well I ended up fixing my prop myself. After a few phone calls it was obvious that none of the local repairers was interested in doing it for me, I got the usual comments "What did this come off mate, the Ark?", "You can't get the parts you know", "What you need is a new prop/motor/boat/anything-else we-can-con-you-into-buying" BS.<br />So I did what I expected I'd do in the first place, moulded a new bush myself. It's moulded in 60 shure RTV polyurethane rubber, but instead of moulding the bush then pressing it in I decided to actually mould it in the prop itself, thereby saving the effort of making a mould and ensuring a perfect fit too.<br />I made a very simple wooden jig, a flat piece of ply and a length of dowel to hold the brass/bronze bush and the prop exactly concentric, plugged the holes where I didn't want the rubber to go with plasticene, poured in the rubber and inserted the metal bush. I'd done a rough calculation of the amount of rubber I'd need (volume of prop cavity minus volume of metal bush) so that I wouldn't pour in too much and have it flood everywhere. <br />I fitted the prop back on the motor while the rubber was partially cured and still compressible, so it's as good a fit as I can possibly make it, I think this is going to work OK.<br />Oh yes, before pouring the rubber I roughed up the inside of the prop and the outside of the metal bush with a Dremel, just to give the rubber something to grip on rather than the smooth metal surface.<br />Time will tell if this holds or not, if it doesn't I'll report back and let you know it doesn't work, then I guess I'll be buying a new prop but at least I can say I tried.