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Old 06-08-2010, 10:28 AM
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Don Moyer Don Moyer is offline
 
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The worst case situation is that the keyway will shear (lengthwise) and the tail shaft will turn freely within the output coupling. When this happens, the tail shaft is almost always ruined which requires removal of the whole reversing gear assembly to repair or replace.

I can see from your second photo that there is virtually no space between the back of the propeller coupling and the stuffing box, so I don't know how you'll be able to separate the two couplings without moving the engine forward (after removing the three retaining bolts of course). I've never been able to understand how (even quality) boat builders allow this to happen.

Before going to the trouble of moving your engine forward, you might try turning the couplings back and forth (with all the muscle you can muster) with the engine in forward to see if you can feel any play at all between the couplings and the tail shaft. If you can feel no movement at all between the coupling and the shaft, it would remove some of the urgency of the situation, but in my opinion the tail shaft to output coupling connection should be investigated.

To your last question, I see no evidence that the prop shaft is lose in the prop shaft coupling so there's no reasonable threat that the prop shaft will move out the back of the boat.
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