Prop shaft moves in and out is this normal?

[Smokepole27]

Just looking at the prop today after correcting the lower unit oil and water leak, the prop shaft moves in and out of the bearing spool is this normal, does anyone elses' do this?? It moves about a quarter of an inch..

 

[Banditz]

Re: Prop shaft moves in and out is this normal?

Hey smokin..Mine moves around barely...maybe an 1/8th inch. But when I redid mine, I noticed that there was no way at all to adjust it. The only way it could get any looser is by wear on the gears. Likely your issue. Mines a 50 hp..So i could be wrong..but the gears in mine, the shaft gear to be exact is what holds the thing in. If it were me...I would just go ahead and waste the 20mins to drop the lower foot, and put it in gear..once done I would pull hard on the prop and see if it caught at all...if it was still smooth, then i dont think I would worry about it. If it caught...well, then I would take it apart and check, who knows..you may be able to space it somehow, but most likely you would need new gears. Hope this helps man...

 

[Smokepole27]

Re: Prop shaft moves in and out is this normal?

I am hoping its not the gear I only found one at boats.net and they were only selling the assembly and it was almost 400bucks. Hopefully someone else will chime in and assist in relieveing me of my worries. I didnt check it while it was in gear so Ill have to do that when I get home from work, Id sure hate to hear I have some problems! When I took it to a buddy that is a yamaha mechanic to pull the bearing spool out he said it was normal but Im still wanting more opinions...

 

[Smokepole27]

Re: Prop shaft moves in and out is this normal?

Bump bump

 

[Banditz]

Re: Prop shaft moves in and out is this normal?

Well man if it is the problem...and you are just dead set on fixing something that really may not need fixing, for god sakes dont pay that much for it, just buy another foot and be done with it. those can be had cheap off ebay and other places like Craigslist.