I got my boat a year ago in the spring. A total survey noted that the cutless bearing was in fine shape. It's on the hard now, about 2 hours away from here (Milwaukee). The marina reports that it is worn and should be replaced. Looked fine to me when the boat was pulled, but what do I know? I had an outboard on my Catalina 25 for 17 years and never needed service.
Anyway, they want $380 to replace the cutless bearing. Having a little trouble with the packing and thinking they were going to have to pull the shaft anyway, I asked them to quote on dripless packing also. The whole thing, dripless packing, cutless bearing, and grease/service the MaxProp is quoted at $1540.
The boat is a 2004 and had 200 hours on the engine when I got it 10 months ago. It now has 300 hours on it.
Any opinions? Should I go for all of it? I'm not in a position to do the service myself, so it's either wing it and risk running as is, or go with their judgment and get it all done. Other service people have told me that nearly everyone who gets their shaft pulled gets dripless put in at the same time. It would be nice to see a dry bilge for once.
G. Jackson
Greg Jackson
SV Jacqui Marie
2004 C36, MKII
tall rig, wing keel,
I'm not in a position to advise on the merits of the "dripless packing", although the standard packing is really not all the hard to service and maintain (check our MaineSail's instruction page at [URL="http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/stuffing_box"]www.pbase.com/mainecruising/stuffing_box[/URL]).
But replacing the cutless bearing yourself is not that hard, either. I did it last spring on our then-new (to us) boat. Catalina Direct has the bearing for $70. The C36IA has a cutless bearing tool in the "Toolbox" that you can use for free (all you need to pay for is the shipping on to the next member using it). The whole job probably took an hour. If you search the association forums you'll see a few write-ups by users (including me) as to our experiences.
Just my $.02
Matthew Chachère
s/v ¡Que Chévere!
(Formerly 1985 C36 MKI #466 tall rig fin keel M25)
2006 Catalina Morgan 440 #30.
Homeported in eastern Long Island, NY
Here's something I've noticed with both our Catalinas. Once the boat is pulled and the weather gets cold there will be a very tiny amount of play at the cutlass bearing. In spring when it warms up if it's still there you likely need to change it. Our current boats cutlass bearing was toast when we bought it, you could not miss it, the motion of the shaft was extreme and you could hear it clunking when we test ran it.
If you go with dripless packing, it really isn't dripless but it's close. If you tighten it up to the point that it doesn't drip your stuffing box is likely going to run pretty hot. I used a knock off product the first time and it was not good, I used the genuine Gore GFO last year and it was much better and only cost a couple of bucks more. There is a very defined break-in protocol for GFO and if you don't do it right, it will never seat. It needs a lot of water for the first two hours, then you can progressively tighten it down to a drip or two a minute. Ours does not drip at rest at all, and drips about every 20 seconds under power. I used 1/4" as stated in Catalina's manual but with that I could only get two wraps in and still have enough thread engagement on the nut to be safe, but even two wraps I can control the drip from totally dry to pouring out. Personally, I am not a fan of the PYI dripless seals, the risk of tearing the bellows is real and it can be catastrophic. Our boat had one when we bought it and I took it out.
$1500 bucks for doing that work, wow, I was in the wrong business.
[QUOTE=bstreet;11721]
$1500 bucks for doing that work, wow, I was in the wrong business.[/QUOTE]
If he is removing the shaft that is where the expense comes in. Time to remove the shaft from coupling can be many, many hours and the labor can often exceed the cost of a new shaft. This is why it is often just easier to cut the shaft. 10 Minutes vs. hours/days.. You'll then want a new coupling, fit and face, drop rudder, re-install rudder, align rudder etc. etc....
A re-pack and press-out cutlass job would cost considerably less..
-Maine Sail
https://www.marinehowto.com/
When we bought this boat with the totalled cutlass bearing we had the yard it was kept at in Sandusky change the bearing when the boat was on the hard waiting to get shipped. They said they had to drop the rudder to do it as they didn't have the tool to do it with the shaft in place. The bill for that was less than $400, including the bearing, which I thought was pretty reasonable and I note on re reading the original post they want $380 to do that so that would seem about right I guess, assuming it actually does need a bearing. Changing packing is only an hour or two at most, even a ham fister like me can do it in that time. So I expect the big bucks are in servicing the MaxProp?