Has anyone got experience (good or bad) of changing the cutless bearing on a Seal 28? Any special tricks to it. As far as I know, the shaft is metric 25mm and I wonder if the stern tube/cutless bearing outside diameter would be metric or imperial. Also are there likely to be any gurb screws or similar holding it in?

Otherwise the plan (but not till it gets *much* warmer than it is now) is to remove the prop, lift the engine enough to slide the shaft underneath it then cut through the old bearing with a hacksaw blade, remove it, and ice to cool the new one and slide it in and put everything back together. I know the shaft can't come out the other way past the skeg/rudder [:(].

I also wondered about unscrewing and removing the external part of the stern tube that has the cutless bearing inside it with the engine/shaft still in situ.

Any neat tricks to save time and effort would be very welcome. Otherwise I'll do what I've planned (couple of days work?).

Hello callender
I replaced my cutless bearing a few years ago, I can confirm the shaft was 25 mm but I did not measure the inside of the bearing housing, I assumed this to be standard.
There are 2 hex grub screws on the outer housing which grip the cutless bearing.
I removed the outer bearing completely by unscrewing the 2 bolts and using a stiltson type wrench, unscrewed the outer bearing from the stern tube.
This made removing the cutless bearing easy. Once removed and shown the electric wire brush the hex grub screws were more obvious.

Mike

Mike Edwards
Seal 28 "Aztec"

---

Thanks Mike, what you did was exactly the short cut I was considering... so sounds like that would be the way to do it. I'll have to get busy with the wire brush and find the screws, also good to know that the bearing isn't some obscure size that I'd need to get made up specially.

Thanks for the info, very useful

Chris

Thank you, Callender and Mike,
the topic appeared just at the right time. This is a job I also have to do within the next days. Yesterday I went to the boat to search for the grub screws you mentioned but there were definitely no screws to grip the cutless bearing.
So I used a tool that a friend had welded for me (some kind of open-end wrench that you use to fix the disc of an angle grinder, a little bit oversized however to fit the pins into the holes of the two bolts) and tried to unscrew the outer housing: It was really easy work, although the result is not yet obvious, I have to take away the prop before ...

Gerold

---

Thanks Gerold, that seems a good and and easy way to unscrew the stern tube fitting then, I know exactly what you mean with the angle grinder disc removal wrench. I hope your job is still going OK.

So it seems that I have got 2 DIY tools to make then - a prop puller and then that wrench - well I enjoy welding so it beats lifting the engine up to get the shaft out.

Thanks

Chris

My 28 had a white metal outboard bearing. The housing unscrewed as others have described, though, allowing repair in the comfort of home!

Neil Sinclair
Seal 28/27
'Andiamo of Exe'

---

Meanwhile I have managed to remove the prop (really hard work) and the housing. I expected to find a rubber bearing, but it was a brazen one and no possibility to find a spare part (@Chris: outside diameter 30 mm). Today I asked a metalworker to make me a new one, hope it will work. It looks as if there should have been an O-Ring at the end. Any information about that?
Seems there have been a lot of different solutions for the cutless bearing within the last thirty years.
But once the prop is removed:
What kind of prop do you use? 2 or 3 blade? What pitch? Would there be space enough for a folding prop? What would approve motoring astern?

Gerold

---

I made a Nylon bearing to replace the white metal outboard bearing on Andiamo. I didn't want a Cutless type because I have a mud mooring and I was worried that the mud would get into the rubber and wear the shaft. The plastic bearing has been in service for three years, now and shows no sign of wear. I use the inboard greaser just as I did with the white metal bearing - the grease keeps the mud out!

Neil Sinclair
Seal 28/27
'Andiamo of Exe'

---

OK - I was kind of slow to get this job done but got there in the end (nearly) so reporting back.

The bearing housing was pretty easy to remove, exactly as described. I was a bit worried that perhaps the screws holding the housing to the hull would shear but everying was in good condition when I dismantled it. There was a white metal bearing, and when that was removed the housing was a bit of a strange size (about 33mm, at first I had guessed 1.25 inch but not quite). No chance to remove the white metal bearing except by melting it out. So I can't see any way this could have been done with the bearing housing still in place on the hull.

Next I had the housing machined out to 34mm and fitted a standard rubber cutless bearing and set screw. So all that remains to be done is put it back on the boat, and it should be good to go, and hopefully afloat again in a few weeks.