engine v-drive alignment

[mille73]

I have twin 220 crusaders with walter v-drives. I have vibration at the stuffing box on the staboard shaft. When I run at 3000 rpm it vibrates enough to loosen the packing seal. I pulled the shaft & straightened, it was out about .012" t.i.r. at the packing area runs within .004" after straightening. After re-installing shaft same problem not quite as bad but still vibrating. I changed the strut bearings. Better but still some vibration enough to loosen the packing. If the run-out is at the drive coupling how do I go about alighning the drive coupling at the v-drive. does the v-drive move with the engine?
Can I shim the v-drive? Help

 

[rodbolt]

Re: engine v-drive alignment

TIR on the shaft needs to be less than .002.
to align the drive requires moving the Vdrive up,down,left ,right as required so the mateing surfaces of the shaft coupler are within .003 of being parrallel and perpindicular. and on most vdrives its a lot easier to say than do but MUST be done.
I worked on an antique lurhs some years back that had those walther Vdrives. used 72 series borgwarners jackshafted to the drives and the drives where mounted solid to the stinger with no mounting adjustments. yes it took 17 hours to align both drives using shims. Ill never do another that does not use adjustable mounts.
what type of sht logs do you have? is your packing spud a nut type or the type with 2 bolts or the water cooled type with a bellows ? if its the nut type are you adequately tightening the jam nut ?
do your Vdrive mount directly to the clutch or are the jackshafted?
most modern Vdrives have adjustable mounts while some use the engine mounts to align the shaft coupler. but the coupler faces,after careful cleaning should be within .003. to check draw up 2 coupler bolts so they are snug then back them off 2 turns, check at 4 places 90 degres then roll the shaft 180 degrees and repeat.
some setups require using bottle jacks to jack the engines left right and diagonally. I hate them but make lot of coinage with it .

 

[mille73]

Re: engine v-drive alignment

Thanks for the input Rodbolt. The packing nuts are secured to the hull with 3" rubber hose (bellows). The adjustment packing nut is retained with cotter pins not a lock nut. The v-drive is mounted to the clutch I can use the motor mounts to align the coupling. I have another question. The shaft is supported at the strut out near the prop & by the packing how do I determine when it is parallel with the v-drive coupling? The shaft is approximately 5 ft. long.
I replaced the strut bearings they are 1 1/4 i.d. by 2" o.d. 5" long. The vibration at the packing nut was reduced by about 85% after changing the strut bearing.

 

[mille73]

Re: engine v-drive alignment

:% Well I found the problem. The previous owner or some hammer mechanic beat the coupling face to smitherines... It had at least a .02" burr from using a chissel or something to separate it from the v-drive, then ball peen dings from when he put the coupling back on the shaft! I turned the face of the coupler square & checked the drive alignment to be within .002" .
Put everything back together prop shaft & packing runs like new. 8)