Trying to turn the shaft by hand

[benbox]

Hello all

I hope to gather some wisdom from the all the salty experience around here. I am having that common problem where the A4 in our 1982 Catalina 30 runs, idles, and revs smoothly like a top when neutral, but stalls within seconds when put into gear. I have read dozens and dozens of discussion threads so I have a lengthy list of troubleshooting items. However, due to my inexperience, I am running into some issues in the first step -- checking to see if my prop shaft will turn by hand in neutral.

1) With 2 of us boat partners gripping the prop shaft, while in neutral, we were unable to budget the prop shaft at all, not even a fraction of a mil, using our bare hands. However -- we do not have a standard stuffing tube, instead we have one of those PSS Shaft Seal systems, where the stainless steel collar is pressed against a graphite puck under pressure from the rubber bellows. Should the shaft still be turning freely by hand even with the PSS shaft seal system?

2) Would it be a worthwhile test, if I de-coupled the prop shaft from the coupling flange at the engine shaft output, and then tried again to turn the shaft by hand? (And if I understand correctly, I should carefully use my feeler gauges when slowly re-tighten the bolts connecting my prop shaft to the coupling flange - correct?)

We're already planning to hire a diver to check for lines or other debris fouling the prop or shaft outside the boat, but I want to check for excess shaft binding this weekend. Was just hoping that #1 above -- was already good enough indicator that my shaft binding is the issue.

BACKGROUND: New (to us) boat had an extremely well maintained A4, and motored everywhere with no problems. At end of March, we motored 2 hours to get to a shipyard where, for the next 4 weeks, we got all standing rigging replaced. Boat was never lifted out of the water. After 4 weeks, we start the engine, put into gear, and stalled after a few minutes.

After more attempts, the engine now stalls almost immediately (prop shaft turns 4-5 times) and then it stops). With all of this, I believe the issue is shaft binding, so was hoping to confirm.

Would appreciate if someone could confirm if in neutral, with PSS seal, prop shaft could be easily turned.

thanks