Cutlass bearings on a Diesel Duck 462

South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Sun 21 Jan 2024 21:13
The main reason for haul out of Dora Mac was vibrations in the propellershaft as mentioned previously on the blog while on passage from Crete. Last time the bearings were changed was in Turkey 2014 with 3.200hrs on them. Randal (the previous owner) was not present on that occassion but told me they slid the shaft forward to free the bearings and have them out.
After dismounting the propeller we needed access to the shaftseal from inside the engineroom. That meant bringing out the toolbox on the aft bulkhead as well as the 100ltr oiltank and floor. After disconnecting the jackshaft we tried to move the shaft but it was stuck in the thrustbearing. Looking into the cutlass bearing there was no rubber left meaning the shaft had been running directly on the brass !

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