joe db - went and put the shaft back in the cutlass, and, yes - there is some play so i'll be cutting out the old and pressing in a new per the maine sailor article - thanks, mark. Took the shaft to rocky bottom prop shop here - guy looked at it, shrugged his shoulders, and said if he were i, he'd polish it with emery cloth and reinstall it - also said looked true and 'those sailboat shafts never go out of true, anyways - you guys hardly use them.' One of the many things i love about buffalo is that so many people here are actually honest and helpful. I do agree with doing all this while the engine is out. Of course they want to sell you a new shaft, but they'll likely also gladly service your existing one for less than a new one. Keith, it might be worth it to take your shaft to a prop/shaft shop. Or should i just bite the bullet and replace the shaft? There has never been any play in the cutlass and the stuffing box always worked properly.so maybe i want to leave it alone? i'm thinking if i polish out the scoring.then there will be play at the cutlass, meaning i'll have to replace that as well My question: there is some scoring on the shaft at both the cutlass and the stuffing box ends.how do i know if and what i should do about it? I decided to redo the stuffing box and the shaft log rubber tubing Partially cuz of your suggestions and partially cuz the engine is out now, so removing the prop and shaft was surprisingly easy. Seems hitting a log under power did some damage I had the yard look at my boat last summer and every item on that list needed fixing except the last one. Note that a worn cutless bearing, bent shaft, bent/dinged prop, or bad alignment all contribute to vibration. For the 38, you need to take some measurements using the available rubber mounts and see if any combination of brackets and/or trimming will work. This would be fairly easy to do since the original mounts give you a perfect surface to align to. One thing you could do is sister new timbers inside the existing mounts until you get the engine sitting ON wood instead of suspended BETWEEN the mounts. These mounts were made to fit an optional diesel on 14-15' centers and then adapted to the A4 11' centers.

There is not enough wood to trim on my boat to use rubber mounts.

C&c small engine