Prop shaft rebuild on a CD33

[Vincent]

I know there is a like post on CD36 prop shaft rebuild. I did not want to step on that thread. I splashed 2 weeks ago after sitting on the hard for 2 years. My boat was repowered around 2003-2004 and I assume that was when a dripless bearing was installed. When Freyja was put in the water, either the dripless bearing was streaming water or the bronze Cutless bearing fitting was leaking. The area is difficult to get to, (duh), so I was unable to see exactly where the leak was coming from.
Back on the hard,a buddy and I worked for several hours to get the prop off to no avail. I finally used a grinder and cut the shaft. During this process the bronze cutlass fitting was removed as well and some glass tore out. I had planned to do a quick filler repair and replace it, but the yard owner took a look and was shocked the whole thing had not leaked sooner.. I will download some pictures to show what I have, but there was very little surface area for bedding the bronze fitting.
I had always intended to replace the dripless bearing and replace with a packing gland. The dripless bearing can’t be repaired in the water if it fails, and a packing gland can be repacked if necessary while in the water. The same yard owner has been hounding me to get rid of the dripless for two years now. He is not a big fan of them. More to come, work calls.

[Vincent]

My plan at this point is to grind the exterior and add 5 or 6 layers of epoxy and glass over the hole and then redrill the two machine screw holes, and use a hole saw to drill the larger hole for the bronze fitting. I am going to install shorter machine screws, I had to find a 5 inch 9/16 socket to remove the bottom nuts.
I thought about injecting thickened epoxy around the bronze on the inside. You can see doom the pictures there was not much supporting that fitting. But Brian, the yard owner disabused me of that notion. He said if it ever needed to be removed I woul be cutting out the back of the boat and hating life, and probably in some third world boatyard at that. I am not sure if I need to stabilize that bronze tube or how I would do it. Possibly a piece of g10 tube. I have a lot more room than most because I cut a hatch in my cockpit sole and got the fuel tank out of the way. Still not an easy place to work, but before it was impossible for me, at 6ft 5in.

[Vincent]

Several more pictures

[Vincent]

You can see that there was very little surface area to bed that bronze fitting on the sides. And there is a small segment of rim at the bottom of the big hole. I did not break off any of that inside rim, it was just not there.
I might also be in for a new prop, apparently the guys who clean and balance the props can only do so much. I didn’t notice any dings but on second look there was a good sized hack out of one of the blades.

[Vincent]

I have been building up the glass on the exterior. I know the lateral walls at the large hole were pretty thin, and there was not much surface area there for any bedding compound. I guess the previous install used 5200, I’ll use something else. The top bolt hole needs to be drilled out. The glass insert is too long, I am going to cut that so it is only about an inch. I’ll then tack it in place, make sure it is lined up and then glass it on from the inside. The oak 1/2in wood dowell is the new drive shaft.

[Vincent]

The glass insert. It is long, it will be cut to about an inch, tacked in place and then glassed in from the interior.

[John Stone]

Nice work Vince.