Well, just to give you guys a little update, here's what's happening with the install on our electric drive system.
So our new motor mount, the motor, and the coupling adapters went in with a lot less grief than I'd expected. We loosened the packing nut on the drive shaft as per youtube, hooked up the wiring, and fired the thing up. . . .low and behold, it worked! It turned beautifully. . . .for about 12 seconds. Then something in the motor controller fried and that was it.
sigh....
So we ordered a new one, waited till it showed up, installed the thing, and tried again.
It worked as well. But we noticed that the turning of the prop shaft was somewhat. . .um. . labored, and that the new unit was heating up rather quickly. I crawled back under the cockpit and tried to turn the shaft and it took all my effort to be able to move it at all.
Not the idea, folks.
I re-loosened the packing nut. . .rather more than I was comfortable with. Same result.
So something is binding the propshaft, which leaves us basically four options: 1) it's out of alignment. Possible, but having messed with it, nothing I did seemed to help it turn better. 2) The packing gland is still too tight, which is also possible, but I'm leery of backing it off any more as the water flow into the boat is about as much as I'm comfortable with. 3) We've been in the water, not moving, for a year now. This area has a lot of Zebra mussels. It's possible we've just got a lot of growth on the propshaft, cutlass bearing, and in the prop shaft log that are inhibiting movment. or 4) the prop shaft is bent.
Okay, so I thought the best way to eliminate #3 would be to go down and look, so I found my mask and went into the water to see what the situation might be.
The situation was dark. No, I mean that literally: our hull is black, we've a lot of duckweed growing around the slips in the marina, and since it's been raining, there's a lot of crap in the water. I couldn't see a damn thing.
Ah, well. . . .
So, next week we're doing a haul and hang to see what the prop looks like, pulling the boat over to the well and putting it up on a sling so we can work on it out of the water for a few hours. That should tell us quite a bit.
Stay tuned
M
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| 4.7 KW motor with coupling adapter |
sigh....
So we ordered a new one, waited till it showed up, installed the thing, and tried again.
It worked as well. But we noticed that the turning of the prop shaft was somewhat. . .um. . labored, and that the new unit was heating up rather quickly. I crawled back under the cockpit and tried to turn the shaft and it took all my effort to be able to move it at all.
Not the idea, folks.
I re-loosened the packing nut. . .rather more than I was comfortable with. Same result.
So something is binding the propshaft, which leaves us basically four options: 1) it's out of alignment. Possible, but having messed with it, nothing I did seemed to help it turn better. 2) The packing gland is still too tight, which is also possible, but I'm leery of backing it off any more as the water flow into the boat is about as much as I'm comfortable with. 3) We've been in the water, not moving, for a year now. This area has a lot of Zebra mussels. It's possible we've just got a lot of growth on the propshaft, cutlass bearing, and in the prop shaft log that are inhibiting movment. or 4) the prop shaft is bent.
Okay, so I thought the best way to eliminate #3 would be to go down and look, so I found my mask and went into the water to see what the situation might be.
The situation was dark. No, I mean that literally: our hull is black, we've a lot of duckweed growing around the slips in the marina, and since it's been raining, there's a lot of crap in the water. I couldn't see a damn thing.
Ah, well. . . .
So, next week we're doing a haul and hang to see what the prop looks like, pulling the boat over to the well and putting it up on a sling so we can work on it out of the water for a few hours. That should tell us quite a bit.
Stay tuned
M
It would strike me that you may have a bent shaft. I've got my fingers crossed for you.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible, Robert, though it appeared straight when we splashed a little under a year ago. We're pulling this week as soon as we get a high enough tide to get our keel into the lift well
ReplyDelete