V-drive pros, explain prop shaft material, diameter, couplers, nickel/shim adjustments and anything else that might educate the masses.
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V-drive pros, explain prop shaft material, diameter, couplers, nickel/shim adjustments and anything else that might educate the masses.
How about Whip Struts? From what I have read some seem to believe they're useless.
Bigger is better, safer and will last longer. The diameter will effect the lift of the boat as well as drag.
material is like hair color on women.
shims/nickles are crutches for strut placement. If you have to shim your shaft, it simply means you put your strut to far forward using Teague's one size fits all formula. Don't shim the shaft, don't move the strut, change the HP until its right, up or down.:happy:
If you have more power than a lawn mower, you use a steel coupler with a minimum of 5 bolts, 6 preferably if you have the room. I don't see the other side of this subject. Its like buying your shaft material off the rack at some metal supply house. They did decades ago, but we've come a little ways since the learning years. Some things are no longer intelligently debatable.
The 2 most recomended and used shaft materials are Aquamet 22 and K Monel. In high HP boats I will only use K Monel. In my DiMarco 21 with a projected 2500 HP it will be getting an 11/8" shaft of K Monel. With the source of these materials coming into play because of all the cheap shit coming out of China, you have to be extremely dilligent when sourcing a supplier. At this year's Enduro there were 4 propshaft failures all new shafts and all from the same supplier. 3 were material failures and 1 was caused by a thrown propshaft blade. All were 1" Aquamet 22 shafts. There are only 2 K Monel manufactures and/or distributors in the US and their base material is sourced from China. The GOOD K Monel shafts come from Italy and are made totally in Italy but are very pricy at about 1800.00 for a cruiser length shaft. Cheap really if you are running a Grose prop!!!! Whip struts, forget about it! Drag boats, 1" shaft, K Monel if you love you're prop. BAF, BAH,BFH 11/4" at least K Monel. I had a strut failure in my DiMarco 21' going 100-mph with an 11/8" K Monel shaft that was off of one of Sonny's race boats orignally and after about 15 years running it. It tried real hard to router it's way thru the bottom of the boat but got everything under control and idiled the boat about 2 miles back to the ramp on the Delta. That shaft was only bent from the strut end back and I still use it today to bore propshaft holes in the bottom of new boats and the prop suffered no damage whatsoever!!!!!!! My 2 fingers are tired again, time to move on1
I've seen whip struts in K boats. Specifically Revenge race boats. Just sayin...:wink:
Two different style's of machines and tooling used to cut the keyway's pictured.Attachment 33601 Is one of them less prone to develop a crack at the end of the cut?
Know anyone around Fresno/Clovis that does ball endmill cuts? Im about to need that done on my Belmont when I put a shaft release on it.
Thanks for the explanation and diagrams. Now I understand what Ive been told before.
I don't know if I would ball mill, but I totally agree with the radius in the bottom cut Westernaero posted.
Look a square stock Craftsman screw driver and you get the idea of what the key slot should look like.
You use the slot you like, I'll use the one that works for me.
I have seen the full radius slots try to roll the key under a lot less force than a boat prop. Might be the kick ass set up if the key is precision fitted, and the depth is dead nuts on, but most props and shafts don't get the attention to detail that a rocker shaft is afforded. Specially in the pits of a race.
Used a radius bottom end mill, and a craftsman screwdriver shank for close to forty years and not broken a shaft yet. So I think I'll stick with it until I am making at least 2500HP. Then I'll switch to this.:biggrin:
http://www.hondoboatsinc.com/images/..._for_site2.jpg
On occasion I like to play the slots, but I prefer blackjack. Oh and I prefer no fillet with my slots please :D
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I go to Automotive Machine Specialties (AMS). They are down town Fresno on Broadway by the freeway overpass. They are swamped right now and it might take awhile for them to do it. They are real cool and have boats. If you go there see if they will show you around, all kinds of cool machines and projects in there.
If that does'nt work out there has got to be at least 20 shops or individuals around that can do that work.
Well, you may have extended the life of the shaft. Like Westernaero said, that slot has seen some stress. Being it WAS the end of the slot makes a lot more sense. Now that its in the middle of the prop, its not nearly as likely to fail there. Not say it can't, but I have never seen a shaft that didn't fail right in front of the prop.