cutlass bearing

wizard · Post by **wizard** » Oct 6th, '11, 16:20

Hello fellow board members, I have a question for you all that hopefully will bring an answer to me. I have two Cape Dory's a 27' and a 31' When I changed the 27's cutlass bearing it was done from the outside of the boat. As I look at my 31' it looks as though the cutlass bearing has a lip of fiberglass holding it in. Would I need to remove the cutlass bearing from the inside to preserve the lip of fiberglass that would be holding it in, or do I cut away the lip, remove the bearing and then reglass the lip to hold the bearing from backing out of the boat? Thanks for your help and advice, Randy

mattlydon · Post by **mattlydon** » Oct 6th, '11, 21:48

you have too many boats - i can help. send the 31 to nyack, ny, where i have a nice mooring all ready for it

JWSutcliffe · Post by **JWSutcliffe** » Oct 6th, '11, 22:18

You need to remove it from the outside (carefully.) However, be prepared to do some additional repair work inside, around the fiberglass stern tube, and there are a number of 31s that had poorly glassed-in stern tubes. I went throught that this summer, as have other CD 31 owners who have posted here in past years. FYI, here is the thread on my repair work:

http://www.capedory.org/board/viewtopic ... stern+tube

Good luck!

wizard · Post by **wizard** » Oct 7th, '11, 03:53

Thank you Skip, very informative. I am completely restoring the 31, been on the hard since May 1. Inside, so I can work rain or shine. This will be like a new boat. I have the engine out, complete gonethru, new motor mounts, and I have done an access hatch in the cockpit which makes boat yoga a little easier. I'll keep you posted on the progress, regards, Randy

rollo_cd26 · Post by **rollo_cd26** » Oct 9th, '11, 21:54

JW, thanks for the woderful post on repairing the hull under the the stern tube. There is no way my wife will ever enter the area below the lockers!

Is there a way to test the bearing while on the hard? My boat is in a large shop building. I am working my way aft on my CD26 after getting the engine spot on and servicing the tranny. I decided to spin the prop shaft a little (~20 seconds) to determine if any vibration is in there. There is no way to provided an exterior water source to the bearing area, so I tried to get some glycerine on the shaft behind the stuffing box. Everything looks good and rotated evenly, but I get a pronounced squeal from the bearing area. Any ideas?

JWSutcliffe · Post by **JWSutcliffe** » Oct 9th, '11, 22:00

Grab the prop and see if you have any radial motion. If there is more than a few thousandths motion its time to think about replacing the bearing.

rollo_cd26 · Post by **rollo_cd26** » Oct 13th, '11, 03:02

Thanks for the guidance. I checked the prop and shaft. Mirabile is 23 years old and the engine has 260 hours on it. There is no wobble or play in the prop shaft, it is tight as can be. I just get a squeal when I turned it with the engine at ~1300 rpm and tranny in gear ~20 seconds. I figure I need to get water on it.

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cutlass bearing

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