Aligning an Engine
OK so. I thought the simpler coupler would make it much easier to tell if my engine was aligned to the shaft. After all, the coupler wouldn’t fit together right if the engine wasn’t aligned correctly.
But it doesn’t seem to have worked out that way. The first time we took the boat out, it ran like a dream. I heard a slight knocking from the engine compartment, but that didn’t seem to be too bad. When we got back to the marina, however, and put the boat in reverse to back it into the slip, we didn’t move: the prop had slipped out of the coupler!
The engine sits on a bracket, with bolts and spacers to attach from engine to bracket. There are three different slots on the bracket to fit onto two different screw holes on the engine. You select the slots and holes that will fit your engine. Mine was an ‘in between’ issue: too low for one location, too high for another. We selected the ‘too low’ one and raised the bracket on the rail to adjust. By doing so, we put it almost to the top of the bolt on the rail.
There are two bolts on the bolt that attaches to the rail: one under the bracket, one above it. The idea is to adjust the lower bracket upward, then tighten it down with the top one. Moving the attachment to the ‘too high’ one, I had to remove the underneath bolt. I put in washers instead to try to bring it to the correct level.
Try again. Get it all attached and take it out again. Same problem. But this time I actually lost it while we were out in the water. Terrible knocking started. When we got back, we found the prop shaft had slipped out again.
I called Scott at Electric Yacht again. He said that they’d started sending another bracket along to stabilize the engine, once it had been adjusted correctly. I received the bracket after getting the boat down to Portsmouth. So I installed it before heading back up to Yorktown. It shook less, but the knocking was still there. So I made use of the outboard instead to get the boat home.
And I’ve given up. I’m turning to the professionals at the marina to get it aligned. Hopefully, they can fix what I couldn’t.
Follow up: Seems the problem wasn’t the engine. And I need stop blaming everything on it. I had a bent shaft. Once that was replaced, all the knocking stopped.
Once that was fixed, all I had to do was loosen the bolts holding it from rotating and run the engine at low speeds. I then rocked it, checked it for motion, then rocked it a bit more. When I was satisfied that it was seated properly, I tightened everything down.
Oh, by the way, I figured out the prop shaft problem myself. The marina, in this case, wasn’t much help.