I hit something a couple weeks ago when getting up a rider. Felt like a small piece of wood (river). We could not drive over 10 mph on the way back to the dock without extreme vibrations. The prop was noticably damaged. I took it to the prop shop and they re-machined it out. First time out, I was still nervous and when gunning it to pull up a rider, there is a vibration that was never there before. About 1 second of a vibration which includes the steering wheel shaking a bit. Once that is through, everything is fine and there is nothing wrong. <BR> <BR>Is this something I should be worried about? My uneducated guess is that something else is just barely off (shaft, etc) and under stress it shakes. What do you guys think?

Reseat the prop on the shaft and re-tighten the nut. Likely hung up on the key.

you just mean take the prop off and put it back on and it may sit on there better?

Yes.

Doesn't sound like you hit anything hard enough, but any time i have enough damage on my prop that it needs replacing/resurfacing, I ALWAYS have my alignment checked as well...it's a quick check, and (relatively) cheap insurance.

What you describe may be something other than the prop. Assuming the prop has been fixed to spec then you need to check the strut. See if it is bent. If not, put the prop on the shaft and tighten as you normally would. Can you turn the prop throughout the 360 degrees of rotation while it is on the shaft? It is normally lubricated with water so you may need to spray WD 40 or silicone into the strut for lubrication. The prop should spin with equal resistance for the entire rotation of the prop. If it grabs anywhere you may have some issues with the shaft. If able put a dial indicator on the shaft and check the end with the prop removed. Tolerance should be less than +/- .003 of an inch from true when the shaft turns. If you are unsure then take it to a shop where they can perform this for you. Good Luck!

/\ what he said is correct. I hit something last year and it f###ed the prop and the strut. The shaft ended up being fine. The strut actually took the worst of the damage. I took the prop in to get hammered out but I had to replace the strut because it twisted.

^what he said is correct because it is a professional marine repair shop<img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/happy.gif" border=0>