Ericson 32 1986 hull 671 replace strut, cutlass bearing, stuffing box hose, etc.
Hi fellow Ericson owners with same age/challenges,
I replaced the original stuffing box and hose 3 years ago when there were obvious cracks in the hose, and the stuffing in the nut had turned to a solid and immoveable.
Three weeks ago my boat started sinking at the dock when the shaft log failed. A difficult leak to detect. The log had cracked and crumbled without any engine vibration to warn me in advance. (Indeed, 36 hours earlier was sailing in Gulfstream off Florida coast, and motoring in ICW with heavy traffic--no problem, no leak.)
The Owners Manual gives (Chapter 3) fair instructions (warning) that the entire steering quadrant and rudder must be disassembled to pull the shaft to replace strut and/or cutlass bearing. Three years ago, the stuffing box replacement only required pulling the shaft aft enough for the hose to slip onto the fixed forward end of the fiberglass shaft log. Good instructions on the brutal job of extracting the shaft from an old coupling.
Unfortunately, the shaft log cannot be accessed without ripping out the fuel pump and Racor filter, or the hot water heater if atop the platform, and the muffler and its platform. The strut requires cutting a hole through the hull and then rebuilding it. This is an expensive repair/replacement to be avoided if at all possible. Unknown to me, the engine shaft was resting on the bottom of the shaft log without creating any vibration or loss of compression. The strut was moveable slightly. (Probably started by running through ocean debris which wrapped the prop and stopped the engine, and once freed gradually worked the shaft downwards and the strut loosened without noticeable vibration. ????)
If you have to pull the shaft for any reason, be sure to inspect the inside of the shaft log. Scrape gently inside with a bent screwdriver to see if the fiberglass is disintegrating. The two inches exposed in the engine compartment needs a sharp inspection with mirror and flashlight to see if any hairline cracks are forming. Failures such as mine should be few, but then my engine has more than 8000 hours on it, never before needed to change the cutlass bearing or pull the shaft out completely.
It's probably the most expensive 14-inch replacement job on the entire boat.