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Dinged Prop


1608malibu

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I have a few tiny dings on the end of my prop giving me a little vibration on takeoff and 36mph, wondering if it is alright to hit them back into place as I live a long way from a repairer

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You probably won't be able to get rid of the vibration and might make the situation worse.

I've always shipped my dinged prop to my repair place. Why not ship it? Also, if you don't have a spare prop, nows a good time to get an Acme.

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Well, I see you are not in the US, so that may have something to do with it. I dinged mine up to and it vibrated real bad. I was able to rework it with some pliers and a hammer. Took a long time, and if you have a nibral prop you have to be careful because it is a very brittle material and easy to crack, which will require welding to repair. If you have a SS prop, good luck! So, yes, you probably can improve it some. I thought mine looked better when I was done, but it still looked like a mess. The funny thing was I went ahead and bought a new prop, and was hoping for all kinds of improvment in performance over my hack job. But I didn't notice anything. I just this week sent that prop back to ACME for a complete repair job. The new one is still perfect, knock on wood.

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Yes you can. I'd take it off the boat first. But as vette-ski said some pliers and a hammer can do wonders if you take your time. Depending on how much fun you really want to have you could even take a torch and heat it up a little. It will be tough to get all the vibrations out without a balancer, but if it's real ovbious where the dings are you might be able to make a nice improvement just by making it look straight. Good luck.

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Yes, "You Can Do It". I've done it many times. Especially back when I ran a nibral prop. Unless the prop is sprung you should be able to straighten the blades using a wood block and a brass mallet.

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I've done it. It wasn't perfect but I went from just being able to idle due to the vibration to being able to wakeboard for the rest of the day.

I swam under the boat with an adjustable end wrench fit it over the tip that was bent and straightened it as much as I could.

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I would not run a boat with a lot of vibration....very hard on the transmission. Will even knock the engine out of alignment with the shaft if it's too bad or you run it long enough. Buy a second prop and trad them out when you bend one up. It cost me about $100 to fix one here in Houston and that's not much when you compare the cost of another transmission - or V drive in my case.

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I heard a story once about a guy with a fishing boat that took his bent prop off his boat and grabbed a hammer and used the ball on his trailer hitch - I guess as an anvil to beat it back into some "prop" representing shape so he could use it the rest of the weekend.

That would make for a great picture I think...

I grew up in a "fishing" family btw.

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I just this week sent that prop back to ACME for a complete repair job.

ACME sends props out for repair. Mine came back repaired OK. I dropped mine off at ACME in Big Rapids at the end of the season under the guise that ACME would repair it. Who better to repair it than the manufacturer. Wrong!

For repairs, if or should I say when, I need another prop repair, I would hunt down a reputable shop with computer analysis and the appropriate blocks. Someone on this board would be a start when looking for a refrence. Cut the middleman, ACME, out of the picture unless you like waiting a long time for your prop to come back.

My suggestion. Buy a backup (thanks again Galaxy Toad) you never know. Why take a chance on tearing up your transmission with an out of alignment prop. People on this site are anal about measuring the exact Trans Fluid for a fluid change, but want to run a prop thats been torn up. Doesn't add up.

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Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with the Acme folks. I sent a prop to them in August of last year. Folks were very straightforward and told me that the prop was being sent elsewhere.

Got my prop back and I am unable to feel any vibration. Hopefully, I will not need to send a prop back to them anytime soon, but I would not have any reservation about doing so.

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I just this week sent that prop back to ACME for a complete repair job.

ACME sends props out for repair. Mine came back repaired OK. I dropped mine off at ACME in Big Rapids at the end of the season under the guise that ACME would repair it. Who better to repair it than the manufacturer. Wrong!

For repairs, if or should I say when, I need another prop repair, I would hunt down a reputable shop with computer analysis and the appropriate blocks. Someone on this board would be a start when looking for a refrence. Cut the middleman, ACME, out of the picture unless you like waiting a long time for your prop to come back.

My suggestion. Buy a backup (thanks again Galaxy Toad) you never know. Why take a chance on tearing up your transmission with an out of alignment prop. People on this site are anal about measuring the exact Trans Fluid for a fluid change, but want to run a prop thats been torn up. Doesn't add up.

That's not good to hear. Honestly I didn't even shop around because I had the same mindset you mentioned - send it to the manufacturer - and they are just down the road. I'm sorta pi$$ed because I originally contacted them by e-mail and my first question was do YOU repair props. There was never any mention by e-mails back and forth or by phone conversation that the prop was being sent somewhere else. I guess in the end if I get a good prop back I don't care, UNLESS they are just adding cost to the whole thing and I could have got the same job done for less dough. Unfortunately, I already sent it off. I may give them a call Monday and get more on this. What's the going rate for a prop repair that needs a small amount of welding to repair about 1/2" crack? They first said $110, then said $130 after seeing pics.

On another note, I don't know if anyone was suggesting to straighten it and run with it. It's a way to get by until you can get a replacement. No need to leave the boat parked. I did buy a new one, and the one I pulled off sat around until now, when I finally got a chance to send it in.

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On our last day taking the boat for the season, I bent the prop driving onto the trailor :blush: . It was bent pretty bad, all four blades were bent at the same place. So when we took it in to get it winterized, our dealer shipped the prop somewhere (not sure where), and it was no problem at all. Cost between the 100-200$ mark.

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I just this week sent that prop back to ACME for a complete repair job.

ACME sends props out for repair. Mine came back repaired OK. I dropped mine off at ACME in Big Rapids at the end of the season under the guise that ACME would repair it. Who better to repair it than the manufacturer. Wrong!

For repairs, if or should I say when, I need another prop repair, I would hunt down a reputable shop with computer analysis and the appropriate blocks. Someone on this board would be a start when looking for a refrence. Cut the middleman, ACME, out of the picture unless you like waiting a long time for your prop to come back.

My suggestion. Buy a backup (thanks again Galaxy Toad) you never know. Why take a chance on tearing up your transmission with an out of alignment prop. People on this site are anal about measuring the exact Trans Fluid for a fluid change, but want to run a prop thats been torn up. Doesn't add up.

That's not good to hear. Honestly I didn't even shop around because I had the same mindset you mentioned - send it to the manufacturer - and they are just down the road. I'm sorta pi$$ed because I originally contacted them by e-mail and my first question was do YOU repair props. There was never any mention by e-mails back and forth or by phone conversation that the prop was being sent somewhere else. I guess in the end if I get a good prop back I don't care, UNLESS they are just adding cost to the whole thing and I could have got the same job done for less dough. Unfortunately, I already sent it off. I may give them a call Monday and get more on this. What's the going rate for a prop repair that needs a small amount of welding to repair about 1/2" crack? They first said $110, then said $130 after seeing pics.

On another note, I don't know if anyone was suggesting to straighten it and run with it. It's a way to get by until you can get a replacement. No need to leave the boat parked. I did buy a new one, and the one I pulled off sat around until now, when I finally got a chance to send it in.

Some prop repairs shops are better than others. CNC props are more difficult to repair than regular props. Acme is going to send it to one that they know will fix it as good as possible.

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I just this week sent that prop back to ACME for a complete repair job.

ACME sends props out for repair. Mine came back repaired OK. I dropped mine off at ACME in Big Rapids at the end of the season under the guise that ACME would repair it. Who better to repair it than the manufacturer. Wrong!

For repairs, if or should I say when, I need another prop repair, I would hunt down a reputable shop with computer analysis and the appropriate blocks. Someone on this board would be a start when looking for a refrence. Cut the middleman, ACME, out of the picture unless you like waiting a long time for your prop to come back.

My suggestion. Buy a backup (thanks again Galaxy Toad) you never know. Why take a chance on tearing up your transmission with an out of alignment prop. People on this site are anal about measuring the exact Trans Fluid for a fluid change, but want to run a prop thats been torn up. Doesn't add up.

I would agree with the above. I sent a prop off to Acme last year with the same idea - who better to have the thing repaired than by the source. The repair was ok, but not to the level of perfection I guess that I was expecting. It ran just fine, and I keep it as my spare. I had another prop repaired last year (it was not a good year for props for me) and had it done by the local shop. The repair was cosmetically better and about the same price.

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When i hit the trailer with the prop, it was a bad day to say the least, I took it into the boat shop, they cleaned it perfectly, it was only a minor ding, but its flawless now.

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I had twice had my OJ prop from the old boat scanned and balanced by a system called Prop-Scan. A scan is made the each blade at four radii and the prop is balanced when the pitch is the same on all four blades at those four radii. This was before the days of CNC props. This is especially significant on twin engine boats. Two props out of the box are not necessarily identical to each other. Prior to CNC even the blades on a given prop where not necessarily at the same pitch relative to each blade.

The place I used is across the Street from MidWay Airport-- close to where the SW plane went off the runway onto Central Ave. It is called Air-Marine. Cost me $125 to have it scanned and balanced.

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