One arm of folding prop missing - do I need to take out the boat to fix it?

[Wayne Bostow]

Forgive my ignorance, but might it be possible to temporarily restore balance by removing the opposing ear? If you could pull the pin mentioned earlier, you could use the orphaned blade to order new, then perhaps pilot to a marina with the two ears? --WB

[MathiasW]

Originally Posted by Wayne Bostow

Forgive my ignorance, but might it be possible to temporarily restore balance by removing the opposing ear? If you could pull the pin mentioned earlier, you could use the orphaned blade to order new, then perhaps pilot to a marina with the two ears? --WB

Yes, this would have been a great idea! And I was trying to achieve that, but it turns out the 'missing' security screw is actually not missing, at least not for part of it. Its head has come off, and so it cannot prevent the bolts from coming out. But the rest of the screw is still in the thread.

With this, I think an underwater repair has stopped being a possibility....

The screws look ok, but somehow have weak heads. I removed one more when I had not fully understood the system, and upon screwing it back in again, without force, it lost its head, too...

[guyrj33]

Originally Posted by MathiasW

Yes, this would have been a great idea! And I was trying to achieve that, but it turns out the 'missing' security screw is actually not missing, at least not for part of it. Its head has come off, and so it cannot prevent the bolts from coming out. But the rest of the screw is still in the thread.

With this, I think an underwater repair has stopped being a possibility....

The screws look ok, but somehow have weak heads. I removed one more when I had not fully understood the system, and upon screwing it back in again, without force, it lost its head, too...

Just wondering are the screws made from a different metal than the prop?

[MathiasW]

Originally Posted by guyrj33

Just wondering are the screws made from a different metal than the prop?

Yes they are. Prop is some bronze looking metal. The screws would appear to be standard non-corroding steel as you would buy them in any chandlery....

[MathiasW]

So, I have inspected one security screw more closely now, where the head also came off, but I could hold on to the head...

There seems to be some cavitation damage just where the head crops back to the thread, which weakened that part.

But then again, I am not sure how to distinguish cavitation holes from holes created by galvanic corrosion. I would have thought the latter are more wide-area attacks and not holes, but I am really not an expert...