When I arrived in Nyack the sun was starting to come out and the temperature was rising above 50F just before 2PM. Birds were chirping like it was the first day of spring, squirrels were burrowing for lost or forgotten acorns and crocuses were blooming with daffodils not far behind. It has been a very warm winter in most respects.
The new 1″ SS shaft went into the new Cutless bearing easily and then we had to attach the shaft log hose that was already attached to the stuffing box.
The shaft log hose has to fit around the outer diameter of the stern tube but it did not want to go on easily at first. Some good advice was offered by Ernie which is to warm up the hose with hot water before trying to get it over the stern tube. KY jelly was also offered as a lubricating suggestion but since we had none handy I settled for some diluted dish detergent instead. Soaking the hose in hot water was probably enough and it went onto the stern tube fairly easily.
Next we tightened the hose clamps on and threaded the shaft through the stuffing box. It was binding slightly so we backed off the hose clamps yet again in order to try to get a better angle of attachment with the stern tube and hose. Then we tightened the hose clamps up again.
Then we had to tamp the coupling onto the shaft inside the boat, fit the set screw and bolt it to the output shaft. The alignment seemed pretty good except we had to hold the shaft down a small bit to get the bolts to attach to the output flange. Once the boat is put in the water and stretches out a bit the final alignment will be done.
I need to post some photos of the work the guys at Precision Props did for us in Newburgh, NY.