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Prop shaft strut bearing/bushing replacement cost?


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Had my boat in to be winterized and they did a check over the whole thing to see if the boat needed any other work. They said the bushing/bearing in the prop shaft strut had wear. For those that have had a shop replace this for them, what was the approx cost for labour? There was no issue with the strut bushing/bearing when I had the boat inspected in the spring before purchasing. Is it possible its fine still?

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Go check that for yourself or investigate further before you have them do anything!

Unless you had some serious issues with a mis-aligned prop shaft, these bushings should last a long long time!

I read that common practice (if you have a shop do the work) is to replace the whole strut!

 

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We will just replace a bearing. But, thats if the strut is not bent or tweaked. Chaabo is correct, the bearings should last a LONG time unless something is out of whack.

If everything is straight, grab the shaft and yank it side to side, there should no play in the bearing, and the shaft if turned should be fairly snug in the bearing. 

 

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What is the best way for me to diagnose if its bad? Is there something specific I should be looking for? They were looking into replacing the whole strut  even though they said it was the bushing/bearing which I lol'd to her on the phone at. Strut is nice and straight, no need for a replacement. The good thing is I have all winter to think about any possible repairs! 

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1 hour ago, asp13 said:

What is the best way for me to diagnose if its bad? Is there something specific I should be looking for? They were looking into replacing the whole strut  even though they said it was the bushing/bearing which I lol'd to her on the phone at. Strut is nice and straight, no need for a replacement. The good thing is I have all winter to think about any possible repairs! 

Grab the prop and try to wiggle it up and down and side to side.  You shouldn't be able to.  If the shaft moves at all in the strut, it's time for a new bearing.

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1 hour ago, asp13 said:

What is the best way for me to diagnose if its bad? Is there something specific I should be looking for? They were looking into replacing the whole strut  even though they said it was the bushing/bearing which I lol'd to her on the phone at. Strut is nice and straight, no need for a replacement. The good thing is I have all winter to think about any possible repairs! 

as at @COOP stated.. prop should spin easy to turn, but not to easy... Grab the prop and see if you can move it side to side or up and down, there should be no play...

My mechanic recomends replacing the whole strut as the $$$ in labor to replace them is almost the difference in $$$ to replace whole part... I have had my replaced (strut and bearings) as my original strut had been straighten many times.

If it were me (and I should have done this as well) is to let them replace the whole strut and ask for old strut back. Replace the cutlass bearings yourself and have a backup strut ;) 

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We have an 05 with 320 hrs and if you pull the shaft to one side just right, you can feel the smallest amount of play.  Our friend just had a ton of work done on an 04 lsv after hitting an underwater stump.  Shaft, prop, strut, gel coat work done and you can barely turn the shaft on his.  Very tight.  

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I put 1300 hours on my 23LSV cutlass bearings when I decided to change them out. They were still in good shape.  Showed some wear, but Still could not get the prop to move in any direction except rotate. It was still tight!  I did it more for peace of mind!  

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When you look at some strut bearing pullers on line, these are made to suit a variety of shaft sizes.

Since you have one size 1 1/8", make one yourself.

Took a few hours to make one, hardest part was locating a suitable size pipe to fit over the Prop shaft & not be larger than the Strut Bush OD.

Fould a length of Chrome Molly from a rol cage builder was closest, worked a treat.

Took about an hour to replace the bush myself, but I was not on the clock just taking my time.

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@asp13:  FYI - there are two types, the rubber encased in a brass housing and the white vesconite hard plastic version.  With boat out of the water, the rubber version won't allow the shaft to spin unless there is water present acting as the lubricant, the vesconite ones do allow your shaft to spin out of the water. 

Bushings are inexpensive, it is a DIY capable project, a few threads cover the R&R process.

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On 11/2/2018 at 10:57 AM, asp13 said:

Had my boat in to be winterized and they did a check over the whole thing to see if the boat needed any other work. They said the bushing/bearing in the prop shaft strut had wear. For those that have had a shop replace this for them, what was the approx cost for labour? There was no issue with the strut bushing/bearing when I had the boat inspected in the spring before purchasing. Is it possible its fine still?

Wear vs worn out. Local Ford dealer is famous for telling people their brakes have wear. If you press them you will find that the pads have 60-80% life left.  Original should last 600 or more hours without concern. I put in the new newer Visconite ones after 650 hours and noticed a drop in vibration or driveline noise, although the original still had some life left in them.  

Edited by Bozboat
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The strut on my boat had been bent before I bought it, so the bushings were worn.  I removed the strut to straighten it and change the bushings to vesconite.  

I found it extremely difficult to remove the old rubber bushings since the brass shell had chemically bonded itself to the strut over about 15 years.  I don't think it would have budged if the strut were on the boat.  Other than that, changing bushings is a straight forward job. 

Removing and replacing the strut is simple, so don't worry if you need to do that.  You will want to do an alignment after you put new bushings in anyway, and that should take care of itself if you are careful when reinstalling the strut (in other words, you align the strut to the shaft).

Like everyone said, the dealer may just be trolling for work.  Learn how to do these things and free yourself from the predators. 

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