O.S Shafts breaking

[Jeff Ansell Jr.]

Im having issues with the air cooled version outboard i have oiled and greased the shafts but they keep breaking is there a better shaft i can get for the outdrive?

 

[Kevin Krogness]

How often do yougrease or oil them? Realistically you should every run. Off and on the throttle or rough water can damage them also. Kris Flynn on here makes some good shafts, shoot him a pm...

 

[Brian Sorgente]

Hmm that's odd, I'm still pretty new to the outboards but I put multiple gallons of fuel through my mod motor on an OS lower last season and haven't broken one yet. I've heard of guys breaking them if they use grease for lube or if the flex shaft is bottomed out in the pto and prop shaft.

I use straight castor oil for lube and its been working great. I give it a shot before every run and i dont use an oiler. I get it from the pharmacy, apparently it's used as a laxative lol...

Check your cable length, pull the motor off and push it all the way in, then push your prop shaft in so the dive dog is tight against the drive ( like the prop does) and measure how far the cable is going into the pto shaft. If its bottoming out in the hole, trim a little off with your dremel, I would say give it a 1/16" or so clearance so it can float in between. Maybe a little more depending on how much engagement you get in the pto.

Hope this helps,

Brian

 

[RonShaw]

Jeff,

I had the same issue on my OS and it ended up being a binding prop shaft assembly. I showed it to several people in Charleston and no one had ever seen one bind like that before. It was almost like the inside tolerance of the threaded brass piece was too tight and once there was scoring, it was over. Check it and your shaft liner as Greg mentioned.

 

[SayMikey]

After you figure it out just oil it every run thru the top fitting in the lower unit.Never grease it or it wont let the oil into the shaft. Id also consider making a brass liner for the tube. Dont stab the throttle when launching just bring the rpm up slow....

 

[Kris Flynn]

Boat?

Prop?

does the boat bounce (porpoise)?

Do as others have said.

Dont run dark coloured shafts! Trust me. I tried To the other weeked and broke one with a tiny prop after 2 tanks. It was treated the same as mine

I dont care if u dont Run my shafts

Oil at least every couple of runs

 

[Tim leyde]

Porpoising will due it everytime.

 

[David Santistevan]

There are about a dozen reasons for this most of which are boat setup.BTW Tim is right, this is one of the most common causes.