First boat, Delta Force 35" Pirate

[millzee]

well I think I'm ready to through it in the water and test it, I might try tomorrow if the weater is good to me, I'll loctite all threads tonight and see how I go, I'll get the video camera ready so I can get some footage and maybe some of you pro's and help me to dial it in. I haven't changed the copper water intake pipes to carbon yet, I thought Id just see how it goes b4 getting into changing it all. I made up a front cowl lock that allows the rear to be lifted streight up without putting any stress on the front lock, (I found this out the hard way). I've made up the parallel lead and then had to shorten a few ends to make everything fit nice. I'm still a tad concerned with the drive shaft, please see attached pic's and let me know if the space at the coupler and the drive dog are ok and I'm gunna try the x445 to start off and see how it goes, any other recommendations b4 I wet this thing?

[rearwheelin]

Your spacing at coupler is good, I thought you were going to use thrust washers, I can see that you have one , there should be 4......you might need to increase the space on your stinger and driive dog about 3mm since I don't recomend thrusting with your stinger with only a single thrust washer, should be 4 of them....

[millzee]

thanks again, thats the kind of help I need, I'll go and adjust it and put the other three on, I was wondering why they came in a pack of 4.

[rearwheelin]

I will uploar a photo, give me a moment..

[rearwheelin]

On this boat I am using .150 cable so the stuffing tube is closer....

[millzee]

a few pic's at test stage 1

[rearwheelin]

a few pic's at test stage 1

Looks good !............Use hatch tape too..

[millzee]

will electrical tape do the job? I've been hunting around town everywhere and think that may be my only choice for tomorrows test.

[rearwheelin]

will electrical tape do the job? I've been hunting around town everywhere and think that may be my only choice for tomorrows test.

Electrical tape will be fine. Hocket tape is what I use, you can find it at a sporting goods store, It is allmost the same as hatch tape.....Good luck tommaro !

[millzee]

So I took the boat out this morning for her madden voyage and was suprised to see it sat quite nice on the water, a bit of tuning needed handling wise but otherwise ok until I bought her in to check temps after a 1-2minutes and noticed a bit of smoke as I opened the lid, it come from the stuffing tube near the coupler, I temped the tube close to the coupler at about 65c / 149f and noticed the teflon tube was a little damaged. Keen to run it a little bit more I just relubed the shaft and the result was a bad blow out of both stuffing tube and drive shaft, my bad! My question is, what would have caused the original shaft damage b4 I was silly enough to run it again? and How the bloody hell am I going to get the damaged tube and shaft out, where do I start and go from here? I'll put the video footage together tonight and put it up for you to have a look at.

[keithbradley]

It looks like it was possibly caused by cable whip, which comes from:
~ Too much exposed cable between the tube and coupler
~ No support on the front of the stuffing tube
~ Improper motor to stuffing tube alignment
~ Wonky coupler or motor shaft (not that common)

Whats around the stuffing tube? (I know it was mentioned once in teh thread but its a large thread...

[millzee]

I noticed the shaft was off to the left only a micro fraction when installing the coupler, I didn't think it'd matter too much, wrong again I see.
The stuffing tube has a ply wedge under , the two you can see along the sides all glassed in, then I put foam in a can to fill the hole, cut it back to shape and then glassed over it for support for the batteries, any suggestions?

[millzee]

I noticed the shaft was off to the left only a micro fraction when installing the coupler, I didn't think it'd matter too much, wrong again I see.
The stuffing tube has a ply wedge under , the two you can see along the sides all glassed in, then I put foam in a can to fill the hole, cut it back to shape and then glassed over it for support for the batteries, any suggestions?

does this mean I'll just have to cut it all out and start again?

[keithbradley]

does this mean I'll just have to cut it all out and start again?

I would cut out the top of your stuffing tube tunnel with a cut off wheel and remove the old tube that way. Then you could grind it down and start over, or place a new one in and glass back over, depending on how you want to go at it.
I think tightening up the distance between the coupler and tube will help. It looks like it was whipping around and wearing the stuffing tube down before it broke. The other possability I considered was the coupler being a bit loose adn allowing some slippage, which in turn would heat the cable. If the cable were heated enough, it would easily break. I dont think this was the case though, based on the way that tube is hogged out at the end.

[rearwheelin]

Thats the first time I have seen that ! Wonder if the motor was also tourqing the hull miss alligning too.