J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment "shafted"

I hear from my mechanic that the shaft is stuck in the "damper" and his shaft puller is too big to fit in the space to pull it. He wants to lift the engine ? or cut the shaft in order to replace it... as suddenly it has a 1/2 inch bend "at the taper" Anybody who can translate that for me... I think they are trying to reinvent the wheel... surely somebody has had this dilemma before?

BTW, his purpose was to replace the tranny seals... but apparently the shaft/prop have been collateral damage...

There are three ways to get a stuck shaft out of a boat. Two of them bad. Unfortunately most marine mechanics will take the short cut brute force methods - the bad ones.
Call me

Have them take a flat bar drill a thru hole and then weld a nut in then two more holes to line up with the flange

This will make up a short puller with a bolt in the nut

This worked well for me

I used something like a dent puller. Screws Onto the end of the shaft AND HAS A SLIDE HAMMER ON IT. THE SLIDE SLAMS IN THE PROPER DIRECTION AND IN ALIGNMENT OF THE SHAFT
THE RUDDER WAS REMOVED TOO. AND that's VERY EASY!

If the shaft is now severely bent could he not cut it to remove the pieces?

My shaft was worn and it was straight forward to get a replacement shaft made up.

My experience with the transmission seal was that my transmission got over filled and leaked. When the transmission was filled to the correct level the seal did not leak. YMMV.

Good luck.

Hi Russ, pm your phone number and email... I'm getting on the boat this afternoon and can send pics, questions...