Shaft Alignment/Vibration

A few weeks ago, my buddy nailed a rock and curled the edges of my prop. I put a new one on and have noticed a slight vibration at low RPM's, probably due to some misalignment somewhere. My question is, I know I need to take it in and get it fixed, but could I wait until t he end of the season? What will it damage, if anything? This is the first time I have changed the prop, so I am just not sure. anybody else waited until the end of the season to fix this? thanks

Duran if the shaft is out alignment or bent it could harm your transmission. I would go ahead and take it in to be checked out. I would not rule out the new prop causing the vibration, but since it is a new prop if it was defect in the prop you would probably only notice it at high rpm's.

Get it fixed!Depending how bad it's misaligned it can cause your shft to break the next time you go out.It happend to me on my old boat.

Depending on how sensitive you are to "slight" vibrations it could cause some major problems.

In my experience, any vibration that was enough to be noticable would lead to major problems.

1) A simple problem would be that the shaft will break.
2) A major problem would be that the output bearing and seal on the transmission/V-Drive will fail.
3) A real major problem would be that the engine mounts vibrate loose and the motor rips off its mounts during a hard acceleration.

I would fix it right away. My first guess is that the prop shaft was bent and you need a new one. A new shaft can be a couple hundred $$, but they don't take long to change.

Duran,

How bad is the vibration? Before you run out and start spending more money on a shaft there are a few things you should check out. First, make sure the keyway is not too tall for the new prop (or it's riding up out of the groove). If it is, it will cause the prop to run on and eccentric circle causing a vibration. Second, if the prop was fixed not replaced I would be suspect of the repair. I would guess a repaired prop might be vibrating, I experienced this and argued with a boat shop for over a month, finally they were getting tired of me so they threw a new prop on and took the boat for a test ride...problem fixed.

The stainless shaft is much stronger than the prop. I have seen some boat shops replace perfectly good shafts because the insurance or poor boat owner didn't know how to check it. If you know a machinist with a dial guage it's not that hard to check while it's on the boat. Rod's advice is very good as always, but he may have overlooked some other candidates for the problem.

It wouldn't hurt to check out your strut brearings, see if there is any side to side play. Then turn your prop by hand and see if its smooth around the whole 360 turn. If the shaft is bent it will spin good and then hit a hard spot ..... sometimes. The prop shop told me sometimes even new props can be out. They have a way of putting them on a puter thats takes all the guess work out. Delta propeller , they do great work!

Did you go to a SS Prop from a Nibral. I just did and now I have a slight vibration as I get on plane at @ 4000 rpm. Once at wakeboard speed, I have no vibration. The SS just seems like a harder pull and with less flex. The prop turns by hand easily. Anyway thinking about going back to my Nibral Prop.