This evening after work I drove out to the marina with one mission, to get the port hub off the port prop shaft. It took a while but it came off. Here's a photo of one of those heavy iron bad boys.
When these things have been on for many years, they really don't want to come off. There's no way you're going to tap one off with a hammer.
I put GIBBS BRAND specialty penetrating oil on them to provide a little lubrication, and then used a heavy harmonic balancer puller. Here's what the rig looked like assembled. You basically bolt the puller to the flange, and then tighten down on that big center nut and it pushes the shaft out. Easier said than done.
Here's another look at the rig, pretty simple concept. Tighten down real tight, tap with a hammer, tighten some more, tap tap, you get the idea. This one took about an hour, which was a piece of cake compared to the starboard hub we did last night. I did this one alone. Of course there's barely enough room for a guy with medium build to get down there to do the deed, really cramped.
Here's what we thought might do the job (a 3-prong gear puller), but it wouldn't grab well enough and it really wasn't stout enough to do the job even if it did grab. I'm sure I would have broken it.
Here's how it might have worked, but it didn't
We used a giant version of the three-prong gear puller to pull the props and it worked superbly. If we could have gotten a giant 3-prong in the shaft hub location, it might have worked, but the limiting factor is the 6" or less of working clearance you have between the shaft hub and the hub on the aft side of the transmission. As it worked out, the harmonic balancer puller just fit in almost snugly, it was close.
On the eve of day 4, consuming all Day Friday, Saturday until 3:30, generally all of Sunday, and a few hours after work on Monday, we have the following accomplished:
Boat hauled
Bottom sanded
Bottom repaired with industrial epoxy in a few places as required.
Bottom painted copper bronze, and ready for another coat.
Dark blue trim finish painted.
Props off
Both shaft hubs off
Starboard shaft off and at the machine shop as a guide to making new shafts.
Tomorrow after work I'm going to install a new transducer and pull the Port Shaft out (should be relatively easy to do the latter since it's just being held by the cutlass bearing now). We'll probably give the copper bronze another coat of paint, and let it dry a couple three days, before putting the white boot stripe in place. Hopefully we'll be in the water on Saturday or Sunday. If not, soon thereafter.
Regards, Paul
FXA 38 3004 R