Catalina 350 International Association

Just finished installing a new PSS bellows, cutlass and new shaft. (One person)
I removed the old shaft from the coupling with a slide hammer screwed directly to the end of the shaft where the prop nut would be.
I braced the flange to the rear platform of the muffler with oak and loosened the flange bolts. (you don't want to place impact load on the rear transmission bearings.)
Some soaking of the joint , key way and removed set screws with penetrating oil,...some quick slides of the hammer (after the PSS collar set screws were removed) and the shaft was out with the PSS collar falling off.
Removed the cutlass bearing next and then gingerly slid the shaft passed the rudder. ( be sure to place tape over the threads of the shaft to protect the rudder as you squeeze past) With the cutlass bearing removed, the shaft can be angled to just clear the rudder. I did have to press on the bottom of the rudder to help the shaft pass.
To reinstall, I pre-fit the key and rear flange with the installed shaft just to align the parts. Braced the flange with some oak and using the slide hammer tapped the shaft into the flange.
Notes:
The shaft was fitted into the one piece flange and placed into a lathe to face the mating surface. The set screws were marked and pre-drilled .
A two piece shaft coupling might require this just to remove a few thousands of run out.
A coating of high temp water proof grease was applied to the shaft, key and key way

The reassembly took about 3/4 hr, used two people ,one to tap and the other inside to yell stop when the set screws aligned with the pre-drilled holes
If you need the special slide hammer with the coupling nut to the shaft just send a PM and I will send details.

Hmm.

Since Leigh has destroyed my proud accomplishment (don't think I didn't noticed your, (one person) comment!!!!!. So, as to not be competitive or anything, yesterday I removed my new PYI, shaft, cutlass bearing, transmission and fuel tank - all blindfolded. I then reassembled them using only my mental acuity and left hand. I taped my right hand and arm to my body.

take that Leigh!

Sorry if I am lost here, would anyone happen to know the correct PSS replacement to order? Or, would anyone happen to know the shaft log diameter? I saw a post saying the shaft is 1" diameter. Thanks

The PSS shaft seal maintenance kit is Part No. 07-100-200R. This is for a 1" shaft and a 2" stern tube.

After having a leak around our shaft collar we replaced the set screws but also added an additional shaft collar. This gives us an extra layer of protection in case the set screws loosen in time. I got the new collar from the Home Depot web site cost was about $25. It was a split collar that goes on easy with 2 set screws to tighten. With the new collar there is now very little room for the seal to move if the set screws loosen. Until the leak I never thought to check the set screws but you can bet it is now on my list of things to keep an eye on.
John
Hull 484

Just so everyone knows - there are 2 pairs of set screws on the shaft collar (4 screws total) stacked on top of each other. If you're re-tightening the screws, be sure to take the first set screw completely out of the collar. Now you can access the one that is contacting the shaft for tightening. If you only tighten the outermost one, you're not tightening the one that counts.
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While winterizing this year noticed that the bellows on my 2003 hull #71 Mintaka appeared to have cracks in the rubber,not leaking best I can tell. I winter in the water, plan on a short haul in June for paint and maintenance. Question is how to change bellows? Have to drop the shaft? Can I slide coupling up shaft and fit bellows thru the gap exposed by moving coupling? What is the rebuild kit Ken speaks of and how / where to get one? Does it include a bellows? Contact info for PSs? What should I be looking at doing also while out of water. Don't want to attempt while in water and sink in my slip. That would really look bad.

Found some more info on site search, got the basic idea. Looks like a session with PB blaster on each visit over the winter!

MarkElliott wrote: ↑Sun Jan 20, 2019 1:02 pm While winterizing this year noticed that the bellows on my 2003 hull #71 Mintaka appeared to have cracks in the rubber,not leaking best I can tell. I winter in the water, plan on a short haul in June for paint and maintenance. Question is how to change bellows? Have to drop the shaft? Can I slide coupling up shaft and fit bellows thru the gap exposed by moving coupling? What is the rebuild kit Ken speaks of and how / where to get one? Does it include a bellows? Contact info for PSs? What should I be looking at doing also while out of water. Don't want to attempt while in water and sink in my slip. That would really look bad.

I just did this a couple of months ago on our 2003 350 as Preventive Maintenance when it was out of the water for a bottom job.

You do not need to pull the shaft out. Separate the coupling. Then the hard part-- I made a "puller" from 1/4" steel plate with holes drilled to match the hole pattern on the coupler. Then, starting with a socket just smaller than shaft diameter in the center, used 4 grade 8 bolts to "pull" the coupler off the shaft. Took quite a lot of time, as had to back off the bolts and install longer and longer items in the center to push on the shaft. Once the coupler was off, replacing the PSS per the directions was easy.

To reassemble, after making sure the coupler is lined up on the shaft/with the key, started the coupler on the shaft. I used an oak 1"X 4" vertically just behind the transmission so pounding on the propeller end of the shaft would NOT contact the transmission coupling. Brother used a wood block and sledge hammer to drive the coupling onto the shaft. Pretty easy to identify when the detent screw marks on the shaft are lined up.

Only job left is to properly "tension"/compress the bellows-- again per PSS directions.

We had the same problem a couple of years ago. After fixing the leak we bought an extra shaft collar at Home Depot (about $15) that we put on in front of the seal collar. There is just enough room to get this on the shaft. This now acts as an extra collar to hopefully prevent slippage if the set screws loosen. So far so good.