no rubber hub on the prop

[njsavelli]

I have a 1967 18 hp Evinrude on an very lite 14 ft aluminum boat. i can have the engine at a low rpm and move about 5 mph at the most but when i start to push the throttle down, the engine revs, but the prop is not spinning. I took the prop off and found out that there's no rubber hub on the inside, so i believe that is the problem, although i have no idea how it would have fallen out! so i call one of the few shops near me that work on evinrudes, and they cant fix it, so now its a 100 bucks for a new prop. more than i want to spend after forking out money to restore the boat all summer! but the guy i talked to also said there was a 'drill and pin' method.. he didnt know anything about it or how to do it, and neither do I but i have heard of it. if anyone can let me how its done or lead me to a website, that would be great! thanks for the help!

 

[steelespike]

Re: no rubber hub on the prop

If the rubber bushing was gone the inner hub would fall out.
A rehub is a routine procedure at most prop shops.Look up prop repair.You may find a good used prop on ebay or at www.aomci.org

 

[Texasmark]

Re: no rubber hub on the prop

If you just pulled the prop and looked at the underside on that engine you wouldn't see any rubber...have to pull the hub to see it....but it appears "you spun it".

Mark

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: no rubber hub on the prop

If you have access to a small press, then you can re-hub the prop yourself. Try www.hmshubs.com to see if they carry one for your prop. They usually run about 18-30 bucks plus shipping. --About the price a prop shop will charge if the hub is available.

Yes, you can drill and tap the original hub and insert a couple of long stainless setscrews into the holes. This effectively converts the prop to a solid hubbed one.

However: The bronze hub is rather difficult to drill. You must have sharp bits and drill slowly. If you do not have a tap handle, taps, and setscrews then it will cost a bit more to buy the tools and re-hubbing may be the way to go.

If you still want to drill and tap, send me your email in a private message and I will send a couple of photos of "pinned" props. A picture is worth a thousand words.

EDIT: On second thought, here are a couple of photos of a 10 inch diam bronze prop for a 55 HP engine that I pinned. I did the drilling at the back because the splines were at the front, but use your imagination on your prop. I could have also drilled straight down around the perimeter of the hub which on bronze would have been just as strong. You can see some white packing that I used to ensure centering of the hub while I drilled it. You can also see scuffing of the hub where the drill touched it. I was trying for as shallow an angle as possible because I did not want to drill through the outside of the prop for aesthetic reasons.

If I were pinning a larger prop for higher horsepower engines, I would use more setscrews--at least four and I would use 5/16 rather than 1/4 as seen in these photos.