very, very, slightly bent prop shaft

[heaty1]

Sup fella's I've wrote in before 'bout the same problem. The guy at the shop seems to think I,m O.k. but he says the prop is bent a little but not enough to hurt anything. Can that be?? Can you run a bent prop shaft at high speeds and not hurt anything even if the bend is less than 1/32 of an inch or less??? This is on a 1984 Evenrude 150 <br />I dont think you can it seems like it would shake the lower unit apart, bust all the seals and stuff. What do ya think? this guy crazy??? or am I lucky??? Thanks, come on snake eyes.....<br /><br />------------------

 

[12Footer]

Re: very, very, slightly bent prop shaft

A bent prop shaft,no matter how slight, is bad news, and I hate to be the bearer of it.<br />When the shaft is bent,it will sometimes not even be noticable underway. But eventually, the seals will fail,so keep an eye on the<br />lube. Check it after every trip. If you aquire a milky unit, you'll know. <br />Now the good news. You could allways replace the shaft. You might even get a good machine shop to straighten and re-true the shaft,which wouldn't be as good,but costs less. the drawback being, the shaft will have to be turned-down in most cases,thus,you'll have to run a wierd size bearing and seal from then on.<br />But the lower unit will get milky before any damage is done, so let that be your gauge.<br />Get a bag-o-pipecleners, remove the vent screw, and check the lube with the pipe cleaner, as you would a dipstick in on oil.<br />Allways use a new gasket on the vent screw.<br /><br /><br />------------------<br />Time to change my tagline

 

[Dhadley]

Re: very, very, slightly bent prop shaft

By the book -- change it. In the real world I have seen some bent shafts run for years with no problem. I would prefer to straighten it or change it if it were mine. Especially if you are surfacing the prop and/or running above 6500 rpm. There are some excellent aftermarket shafts out there. Your local shop will know where to get them. Good luck!