Bent prop shaft strut?

[Houston]

Hit a log, mangled my prop. Prop shaft appears straight (I turned it and saw no oscillation), but the strut appears to be angled slightly right of the rudder when viewed from boat rear. Is strut bent, or is prop supposed to be angled to the right? Frickin' logs!

[99response]

Put a new prop on and take it to the water, you'll know pretty quick if its bent or not.

If you really mangled the prop chances are you bent something else too.

-Chris

[crewdog]

Put a new prop on and take it to the water, you'll know pretty quick if its bent or not.

If you really mangled the prop chances are you bent something else too.

-Chris

go have it looked at by a shop look for bent parts & cracked & stress cracked gelcoat. the insurance companies like to see the damage. there not as easy to get along with if partial repairs have been made. you may be right & just need a prop which you can change yourself? but those repairs get expensive quick so try to catch everything at the same time. mike farmer

[Charlie]

When I bought my boat everything looked good, but after having the shop look at it the strut was bent a bit and that caused the plastic bearing to prematurely wear down on one side.

It may look like its not a problem, but I think it’ll cause you problems if you don’t get the strut straightened or replaced.

-Charlie

[Bill_AirJunky]

Most all inboards have the prop off to one side of the rudder to compensate for the prop rotation. This may be what your seeing.

I agree that you should be able to put a new prop on it & test drive the boat. If you feel any vibration at all, take the boat in to get checked out.

[Houston]

Most all inboards have the prop off to one side of the rudder to compensate for the prop rotation. This may be what your seeing.

I agree that you should be able to put a new prop on it & test drive the boat. If you feel any vibration at all, take the boat in to get checked out.

I bought a new strut( $216) easy replacement (6 bolts)....evrything is good now. Back in the river. No vibration. Did replace prop....bought a 14 X 17 which is too much. Bogs down. Original 13.5 X 16 much better. Thanks - Houston Bu

[Water Boy]

I actually may have done something similar but I can't quite tell. I took the boat out today, ran her out to a creek about ten minutes away everything ran great, then I stopped to mess with the stereo and drifted onto a mud flat, When I put it in gear I noticed a vibration and mud churning up not a big deal so I just idled down to get out of it and the vibrations didn't stop. Couldn't go much more than a snails pace. Got the boat out of the water and the prop didn't look that bad so I swapped it out, but now there is a noise in the shaft when I spin the prop with my hands and then stop. It's a clang sound. NOt sure what to make of it..

Never heard the prop hit anything that is the problem?

[Houston]

I actually may have done something similar but I can't quite tell. I took the boat out today, ran her out to a creek about ten minutes away everything ran great, then I stopped to mess with the stereo and drifted onto a mud flat, When I put it in gear I noticed a vibration and mud churning up not a big deal so I just idled down to get out of it and the vibrations didn't stop. Couldn't go much more than a snails pace. Got the boat out of the water and the prop didn't look that bad so I swapped it out, but now there is a noise in the shaft when I spin the prop with my hands and then stop. It's a clang sound. NOt sure what to make of it..

Never heard the prop hit anything that is the problem?

When I hit the log, we heard a similar clanging sound when limping back in at low rpm. Now that I replaced te strut and prop, clang is gone. Never did figure out what the clang was.....really don't think the prop was hitting anything, so very mysterious.

Your prop is bent if you get vibrations. Get that fixed and see if clang is gone along with vibes.