361 Cutlass bearing / stern tube

[Sergey Kalashnik]

I am in the process of replacing my cutlass bearing and it appears the bearing is installed in a fiberglass sleeve inside the stern tube. The sleeve was damaged together with the bearing I am looking for a way to get this fixed. I contacted Beneteau and they said this is "not normal" and referred me to my local boatyard or a dealer, which is not really a viable option at the moment. 

Below is the picture of the stern tube showing the remnants of of the spacer. The spacer is no more that 1 inch wide so the inboard end of the bearing was probably hanging unsupported. The tube appears to be brass with ID of 49 mm. Wondering if anyone else has this problem? Any suggestions? Also any pictures of 361 stern tube would be helpful too...

[Mohammad Bayegan]

Attached is a picture of a stern tube which I received from Beneteau. The entire tube is fiberglass. The piece at the end is stainless steel. I was told that piece was only there to protect the fiberglass from damage should

a line gets tangled there. Ward at Beneteau told me the older Beneteaus did not even have that piece.

 

B-49 Marengo

Galveston, Texas

 

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[Joker460]

Just by looking at the photo and having no other info other than my boat here are a few suggestions.

1.) Remove the shaft. Cut out the fibreglass(Using a Dremel) that's damaged( looks to be an inch). Have a machine shop make up a bushing with the od being the id of the tube and the id being the id of the fibreglass. Make sure you have the tapped holes. The tolerance of the bushing would be a press fit.

2.) Put a sleeve into the fibreglass tube. Make sure you have release compound around the tube. Inject epoxy filler into the space. When dry, pull the sleeve out. Grind flush.

Pulling the whole tube is going to be a tough job. It looks like the bearing turned in the tube, just a guess.

Good luck

[Sergey Kalashnik]

Thank you for the suggestion. Not sure I understand it completely though. There is no fibreglass tube, only metal. 

I was thinking something similar. Get an FRP tube with 2' OD/1.5 ID, which will be within 1mm of what I need. Machine to size, to ensure tight fit for 40mm rubber bearing inside and 49mm metal tube outside. Clean out damaged fiberglass. Bond the spacer to metal tube, tap the holes, install the bearing. This can be done with the shaft in place. I wanted to avoid removing the shaft as this would require dropping the rudder.

Sergey

[Joker460]

Sorry, the picture shows a fibreglass tube inside the bronze sleeve. That's the tube I'm referring to.

On Wednesday, November 12, 2014 11:31:14 AM UTC-5, Sergey Kalashnik wrote: