I am in the process of rebuilding my Sodak. I have just taken out one of the shafts and I have noticed a slight bend in it. Nothing dramatic but enough that you can hear it when the motor is being run. The question is. can the bend be taken out or would it be easier (and safer) to order a new shaft? The bend is closer to the motors
Unless you're using something strange and hard to get as shaft material its probably easier to just get a new piece of 1/8" brass rod or whatever it is.
New Shaft. There are countless sources for material from precision ground to standard bar stock.... And it won't cost much.... Battlers connection , smallparts, mcmaster, local ace hardware, they all have 1/8" rod of one form or another... (assuming it is 1/8") Back when I was a college student, I used to straighten feathering spindles, and it was a royal pain to do compared to what they cost... but then my time was free... and so was large lathe access and proper indicators for that. I would argue that for your shaft it is not worth the time that could be spent on other parts of the boat.
Paul if it's the connection part of it that way, what I did with Yamato was install a universal coupling between the prop shaft exiting the stuffing tube and the gear shaft coming from the gears. This allowed a little more flexiblity when mounting your Motor/Gear mount. You can use the Graupner type or Dumas type which ever is best suited for your ship. I have had very little issue in 9 yrs using this system and well you know how hard I drive Yamato and how oftern so you get the picture.
My Scharnhorst was much happier after switching to cheap 1/8" stainless steel shafts from the hobby shop. Check the shaft by eye before buying it, I got one that had a strange spiral ridge on it. But in general they don't bend as easily and when they rub against brass "bushings" they don't get hot, expand, and then seize. Notch the ends for set screws and you are good to go. As a side note I use the Graupner universal joint because I can't seem to get everything, on smaller ships I use the Dumas dog bones because they are more tolerant to not being lined up.
