V-Drive alignment: GRRRRRRRRR

[Sailing_Photog]

Just venting here. 'Cause everything hurts. And I need sympathy.

Had my RV10 v-drive rebuilt by Walter Gears.  They replaced everything inside, painted it blue, and sent it back in a few days for a buncha money.  Now that Spring is here, I'm trying to re-install it before launch time.  You wouldn't think it would be difficult, since it's the same chunk of metal that came out of the boat in the Fall.

However, they took off the two mounting brackets and returned them unattached.  Those little L-shaped brackets are asymmetric and I spent all day today trying to figure out how to put the damn v-drive back in so the prop shaft flange lines up with the shiny new flange they put on the v-drive.

I'm a big guy and lying down on the cabin floor with your ribs against sharp corners, trying to bolt in a 40-pound, finger-crushing gearbox leads to lots of bruises in lots of places. And you can't tell if it lines up until you tighten up some bolts. Which are very difficult to reach.  Oops, doesn't work that way, unbolt it and switch the brackets around with the longer leg THAT way.  Wait, what do you mean they're not identical port and starboard as well? 

Ok, I'll try again tomorrow.

(Moral of the story: mark your brackets with a cold chisel or something before sending your v-drive off for rebuild.)

[Jim S]

I have that T-shirt!  My sympathies.

[SailingSeaDragon]

With you on this one - my smart phone is my friend. I have more pictures of boat systems on my phone than I do of my children. I start every project with 20 to 30 pictures from every possible angle. Most of the pictures are of little or no value, but sometimes there are some "life savers" in the group... Also, as my eyes get older it is much easier for me to zoom "in" to see details than relying on my unassisted vision.

Garner