Leaderboard

So I have a 2005 Avy and upon laying it up for winter I noticed my strut bushings are going. Since I head to pull the shaft I figured I would freshen up the dripless since I'm right there. After talking to Tim the owner of Glide bearings I have decided I am going with his product. I don't work for him or have any interest in his company other than he was a very nice and helpful guy and I like to support these kinds of people. He did say this was factory equipment offered on many of the current boat models. Anyway I thought I would share my project progress. It is currently torn apart and I am waiting for parts so here is how I got it apart. I first took the back seat off the hinge and got that out of the way. I was then able to reach in and get at the four flange bolts with a 9/16 box wrench on one end and a socket wrench on the other. When you get these undone the coupler will separate into two pieces and you can separate the flanges. Next step was to feel around for the set screw that has an Allen head on it. This thing jams up against your shaft nut making it unable to spin loose. Once this was backed out I climbed out of the boat and put a 2x4 between the prop and the rudder, climbed back in the boat and undid the shaft nut. Now I needed to separate the shaft from the coupler to do this I set a socket on top of the shaft inside the coupler and got some longer bolts out of my bolts bin. With the socket sitting on top of the shaft I bolted the two flanges together with the longer bolts. The socket makes it so that as the two flanges are trying to bolt together all the pressure was on the socket head and after a couple turns it popped. Now back outside the boat. I undid the prop nut and used my homemade prop puller and removed the prop. I also layer a 2x4 on the trailer for the rudder to fall on. Now I climbed back in the boat and pulled the fiberglass exhaust out of the way, I still need to do the impeller and the belt so it's just easier for me but this is probably not necessary to pull the rudder and if your rudder is offset you may get to skip this step. Anyway I undid the bolt through the rudder and it dropped onto my 2x4. Out of the boat again I put a couple 4x4's on top of my floor jack and jacked the boat up enough for my rudder to clear the trailer. Pulled the rudder then lowered the jack. Now I pulled my prop shaft out and inspected it and polished the wear spots...all looks good. I then climbed back in the boat and pulled my existing dripless out. It was dried on and took some coaxing. Im done until I get some parts I'm in it about an hour and a half. Part of that time is because I've never done this before and figuring it out as I go. This project has all been done essentially blind. I can feel what I am doing but can't really see it. This project is not something I would consider fun, tight quarters and difficult reaches etc. but this is not something I would be afraid of if you have decent mechanical skills. I get all the luck, I've only had this boat a year. I ran it twice last year after I bought it and noticed stiff steering so I had the fun of a steering cable, wasn't as bad as people made it seem. Now this year I find this one, again so far not to bad. If I don't do this stuff myself I can't afford a bunch of toys I could only have one so I end up knowing every bolt on everything I've ever owned on a very personal level. If anyone else is tackling this project let me know if you need help. If there is any interest I will update as I put it together and let you know my thoughts on the Glide product and how it works when I run it next year.