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Shaft Seals

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 Once the shafts were out of the boat, I started on the shaft seal replacement project.  It's kind of foolish not to do this when the shafts are out of a 16 year old boat, in my view, due to all the labor involved in pulling the shafts. And, it's a good thing I pulled the shafts, because the plastic bushing that guides the shaft on the seal housing came out with the starboard shaft!  This was something I had never seen before, as the bushing in the seal housing (I think it's Delrin) is bonded into the seal housing, and isn't ever supposed to come loose.  I have to assume there was a water flow restriction to the seal housing at some point in the boat's history, which caused the housing to overheat, thereby weakening the bond between the bushing and the housing. So, I had to knock the thin wall bushing off the shaft before the shaft would slide out of the cutlass bearing.  The port side came apart normally.  Once the shafts were out, I was able to pull both seal carr
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Props!

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  July 2021:  Props When we were running the boat home from South Carolina, there was a load imbalance between the two engines. The port engine was doing more work - running at higher boost, and consuming a bit more fuel.  The previous owner didn't have a problem with that, but things like this just drive me crazy.  Over time, the port fuel tank would run down faster than the starboard tank, and this discrepancy was exacerbated if the generator was running, since it also happens to draw from the port tank on this boat. Once I had the props scanned by my local Propscan shop, the reasons became obvious.  Fist, the starboard prop had one blade a bit of of whack.  Second, the starboard prop overall was carrying about 1/2" less pitch than the port side.  The props on this boat are specified as 28" x 42.5", indicating a 28" diameter and a 42.5" pitch.  Scan results showed that the port prop was close to 43" in pitch (average value), while the starboard prop
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  June / July 2021, Part II: OK, so now that I finally had the props off, it was time to pull both shafts, and examine the cutlass bearings and shaft seals.  Again, easier said than done.  Since I also wanted to replace the rudder shaft seals, I decided to drop both rudders first, to provide a bit more room to work.  You can see the rudder shaft seal leakage right here: There was a spare seal in the spare seal carrier, visible at the top of this picture, and most repair yards would simply have ripped out the old seal, cleaned the shaft, and dropped the replacement seal into position, but I wasn't about to do that without examining the rudder shaft for wear.  So, I disconnected the tiller arms from each rudder, loosened the retaining collars, and dropped both rudders out of the boat.  That also made it easier to pull the old seals.  I'm glad I went the extra mile, as the replacement seals were pretty old, so I wound up throwing them out too. Next up - pulling the shafts.  Once t
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Shafts, Props, and Engine Alignment

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  June / July 2021:  So, once we got her home, I had a punch list of items to address before I felt I could really start to relax and enjoy the boat.  The first items on the list were: Address a load imbalance on the engines Perform an engine and shaft alignment Have the props scanned and tuned Replace the cutlass bearings   In classic fashion, I pulled the boat a week after she was home, and started to work on it. I figured I'd give up a bit of the summer to address the issues and catch up on deferred maintenance, and that's exactly what happened.  It all turned into a roughly 6 week project, but I don't like to take chances with running gear, and without knowing exactly when and how the previous owner had performed these tasks, I just wasn't comfortable running the boat until I had a baseline.   First up was the prop removal on both sides.  The props on the 500 are large 4 blade 28" diameter by 42.5" pitch Nibral units from Volvo.  A conventional prop puller
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 OK, I admit I haven't been posting as I should.  Life has a way of keeping me so busy that maintaining this blog has slipped a bit.  I'm going to try and fix that now though.  We've done a tremendous amount of work on the new boat, so I'll try and catch things up. May 2021 - First, a bit of history.  We purchased the boat in SC back in the spring of 2021.  Before bringing it home, I wanted to perform some of the overdue maintenance, just so I'd have some peace of mind during the ride home to the Hudson River.  Since the boat was located so far from home, I contracted with Specialized Mechanical Services in Wilmington, NC for the work to be done. In order for them to have access to the boat, my wife and I had to move her from the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club, SC, to the Port City Marina in NC.  This is a 4 or 5 hour cruise, and it was nice to get the new boat out for a ride after closing on her.  We had no issues on the maiden voyage, and left her securely slipped in Po
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The new ride

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 So, after a lengthy hiatus, the Admiral and I are in a new ride.  She's a 2005 Cruisers Yachts 500 Express, powered by Volvo D12 diesels rated at 715 hp each, and coupled to ZF 325-IV V-drive transmissions. Those of you who followed my previous blog: searay340restoration.blogspot.com are familiar with the format, but for the new people who may start to follow along, I'll try to post pictures and a description of each task that is completed, with a basic description of the engineering involved, and the goals to be met, with each post. So, stay tuned - there's lots more to come! This is a pic taken by the Admiral on the first day of our return trip from South Carolina to NY, where all the work will take place.
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