Anyone installed a straight coupler?

[rugger]

Had a few maintenance fixes to the boat, strut bushings being one. So I pulled the drive shaft. I've always hated the tapered coupler I had on mine --looks like someone beat it with a hammer and I didn't trust the edges being true. So I bought a new coupler and am installing now.

My drive shaft/couper combo does not use a nut on the end of the shaft to drive it back on. Appears to be straight with set screws. So I'm looking for experience here. I've heard throwing a bag of ice on the drive shaft, then heating up the coupler first... which makes sense. Any other words of wisdom? I don't see this thing sliding on smoothly due to the amount of effort it took to get the old one off. The last thing I want to do it beat it with a hammer.

Anyone installed one?

Edited July 18, 2010 by rugger

[REW]

Had a few maintenance fixes to the boat, strut bushings being one. So I pulled the drive shaft. I've always hated the tapered coupler I had on mine --looks like someone beat it with a hammer and I didn't trust the edges being true. So I bought a new coupler and am installing now.

My drive shaft/couper combo does not use a nut on the end of the shaft to drive it back on. Appears to be straight with set screws. So I'm looking for experience here. I've heard throwing a bag of ice on the drive shaft, then heating up the coupler first... which makes sense. Any other words of wisdom? I don't see this thing sliding on smoothly due to the amount of effort it took to get the old one off. The last thing I want to do it beat it with a hammer.

Anyone installed one?

Never have installed one but if you find out that you need to freeze the shaft first I recomend dry ice. The maintenacen tech's at Cessna use it to freeze the shaft on a jet before installing the heated fan. Really looks like a fun job, glad I was just watching. Any way it will keep moisture out of the coupler while you work and get the shaft alot colder. I think you can actually get the stuff at walmart. Good luck.

REW

[92skier]

Had a few maintenance fixes to the boat, strut bushings being one. So I pulled the drive shaft. I've always hated the tapered coupler I had on mine --looks like someone beat it with a hammer and I didn't trust the edges being true. So I bought a new coupler and am installing now.

My drive shaft/couper combo does not use a nut on the end of the shaft to drive it back on. Appears to be straight with set screws. So I'm looking for experience here. I've heard throwing a bag of ice on the drive shaft, then heating up the coupler first... which makes sense. Any other words of wisdom? I don't see this thing sliding on smoothly due to the amount of effort it took to get the old one off. The last thing I want to do it beat it with a hammer.

Anyone installed one?

Slightly off topic, but how did you get the shaft to slide back to replace the coupler. I have taken the 4 bolts off the coupler for the past several weekends but can't get the shaft and coupler to break away from the tranny. Is there a freaking trick to this. I don't want to take it to the shop and pay for some work I can do myself, but I am running out of options here.