Hello,
I recently purchased a !985 Nonsuch 26C #172. Because of no maintenance for several years We decided the cutlass bearing should be replaced, in doing so ended up having to cut the shaft and have a new shaft and coupling made because could not remove the coupling after hours and hours of trying. Kahlenberg Industries in WI is fabricating the new shaft, coupling and fairing the 2 blade prop. They sent me a Johnson naval brass sleeve sizes chart of possible sizes for a cutlass bearing , I am going to follow measuring directions on chart but wondering if someone has recently done this. Thank you
Stephen O’Malley
Anew
Nonsuch 26 #172
Marblehead MA
I did the job in 2005 Steve. I got the bearing at Miller’s Island Prop. in the Sparrows Point neighborhood of Baltimore (perhaps Sparrows Point is its own municipality, but the mailing address is Baltimore). Anyhow, I just called them and they said they stock Morse bearings, which sounds familiar to me. I no longer have my invoice, but I remember that the bearing was 4” long, so I had to cut it down to fit the length of the strut (no big deal). The shaft diameter is 1”, but I don’t recall what the ID of the strut is, although it is a cinch to measure it. Mine might have been a “Blackfish”, “Bloater”, or “Bonito” (they all have fish codenames), although the way to determine for sure what you need is simply to measure those diameters, ID and OD.
If your shaft is out, then doing the job yourself is easy, since you can hacksaw the old bearing longitudinally to remove it. Be aware, if you weren’t already, that the bearing is “located” in the strut by two set screws, which might be invisible from the outside due to being covered by bottom paint, etc.
The Nonsuch drawing says its a 1 1/4 press fit. I just cleaned the hole in the strut and the Blackfish had to be pressed in but this was not hard, I used 5/8 threaded rod some large washers and wrenches.
The shaft was also a standard type. I had it out once but unfortunately didn’t measure the length or didn’t record it. Someone else on this list bought a N30 shaft from these people:
On the weather- it may get really warm in the next two weeks so I might be splashing around April 6, about 1 month early.
Thanks so much for the information and for the blueprint, I will send to Kahlenberg. The bearing was really tough getting out, tried hacksaw, drill took many hours but finally out. Probably because been there since 85.
