Propeller shaft truss - Albin Ballad

[kaidepuu]

I found small cracks both in front and back part of the truss - just near the bottom. The truss gives slightly in when pressed to the port side, but not to the other direction.
Now I wonder, is there anybody with the knowledge of this truss construction: how is it fastened inside the hull (with epoxy or bult or with both), is it straight or maybe T-formed?

Has anybody a picture of the element maybe?

[MarkRyan1981]

Can you take some photos? Do you mean the P bracket that the shaft travels through just before the prop? This bit?



Or do you mean the stern tube that the stern gland suckers onto?

[kaidepuu]

It is just the bracket in the picture, yes.

[kaidepuu]

https://coxengineering.sharepoint.com/P ... acket.aspx

I found one version of repairing/replacing the bracket here. Could the Ballad bracket be like this?

[kaidepuu]

---And is there a standard metall bracket available somewhere, does anybody know?

[Jan_Ballad_323]

I have just put my Ballad on the hard and found out that I have problems with this bracket as well, when pushing it moves back and forth slightly. I have also lost the zinc anode that was fastened on the propeller shaft. It's plausible that the screws have vibrated off due to the lose bracket.
A friend who is a owner of an Albin Accent said he had been having trouble with his bracket on that boat as well, and on the Accent the metal bracket is T-shaped at the other end, i.e., the end of the bracket that is in the resin. I cannot confirm yet if this is the case on the Ballad, but it looks plausible.
Here is a picture of how my bracket looks like:

bracket.jpg (334.88 KiB) Viewed 40337 times

There's very visible crack there between the metal bracket and the plastic truss.
My friend had fixed the problem by fiberglassing the bracket in place, putting glass all around it. I'll figured I will do the same...

This post is from the spring, have you found out any more on the construction of the bracket and how did you solve the problem?

[Jan_Ballad_323]

This is how it looks like when I have sanded away paint, exoxy and gelcoat layers:

20161106_145410_small.jpg (386.53 KiB) Viewed 40306 times

I figure that my solution will be to put glass fiber around the whole thing, starting with strips of glass where the hull ends and down along the side, under the metal bracket and then up again on the other side.

Edit: I found the other thread now: http://www.balladklubben.se/balladexcha ... f=8&t=3586

[Jan_Ballad_323]

This is what has been revealed after more grinding:

bracket_2.jpg (320.98 KiB) Viewed 40267 times

bracket_4.jpg (274.34 KiB) Viewed 40267 times

So the metal bracket actually seems to be fastened by three screws that goes through the lower end of the fiberglass strut. It appears as the metal bracket ends right there. All of this was covered by a rather thick layer of what must have been gelcoat covered by a thin layer of fiberglass. This layer can be seen in this picture:

bracket_3.jpg (380.73 KiB) Viewed 40267 times

What has happened for me is that the adhesion of the gelcoat to the metalbracket has loosened, so what essentially holds the bracket in place is these three screws. So that's why I was able to move it back and forth and also upwards.

Good to find this.

Some of the laminate between the strut and the hull has also begun to loosen. There was a pocket of wet and rotten fiberglass that I have begun grinding away. This can be seen here:

[Jan_Ballad_323]

So the bracket is lose.

20161203_131743_001_small.jpg (329.82 KiB) Viewed 40199 times

And the propeller came off as well - after some hours of struggle and 2 times returning to the hardware store to get a puller that could do the job.

20161204_143409_small.jpg (492.83 KiB) Viewed 40199 times

So my next step will be to replace the cutlass bearing inside the metal bracket.

I guess to root cause in the first place of the lose propeller shaft is that the bearing is old and should have been replaced long ago.

A lot of fun so far for a first timer as me.

[Jan_Ballad_323]

So the cutlass bearing is replace and I have installed the metal bracket back on the strut and put some glasfiber around it and up to the hull:

plastning_2.jpg (400.85 KiB) Viewed 39982 times

What do you guys reckon, does it look like it's reinforce enough, or is it just as well to do some extra while I am at it?