Prop Fell Off at the Ramp

[tpbrady]

When I came back into Whittier today after the last trip of the season, I put the motor in reverse to find nothing happens. Fortunately I wasn't going to fast and was able to dock without any problems. As soon as I looked at the lower unit, the problem was obvious. We were lucky in that the water was clear and about 9 feet down you could clearly see a stainless prop.

We had just covered about 75 miles from Green Island and had put the motor in reverse the night before when setting the anchor. I visually inspect the prop each time before I launch for security. I was using the Honda retaining clip and three of the tabs were least 1/8 inch below the retaining ring. The motor had at least 300 miles on it since the prop was last removed. The question is what failed. I don't see three tabs breaking at the same time. The nut can't back off if the tabs are depressed. Since the Quicksilver prop uses an insert for the Honda spline, my initial guess is the retaining ring separated from the insert.

Has anybody heard of this happening before? By the way, it was quite a chore to lasso a prop in 10 feet of water with a rising tide. Thanks to some duct tape used to attach an oar to a boat hook we got a loop around two of the blades and the hub (we used a 2 lb halibut weight to get the rope to the bottom).

[breausaw]

Tom,

Not acquainted with that type of retaining clip, I’ve always just used a cotter pin; glad you were able to retrieve the prop.
I’m impressed you made it out to Green Island in October, and a little jealous; Tucked Triple J in for the season weekend before last. If I could have found some crab pots in town I would have gone out last weekend, but the Tanner/Golden King crab fishery is so new know one has pots.

BTW, I’ve been getting great fuel economy by not trying to fill that 3rd fuel tank.

Take care..

[starcrafttom]

Tom I think that you have to have a pin to hold that thing in place even with the retaining clip. At least it was at the end of the trip and not in the middle.

[Sea Wolf]

Just for clarification, is this what we're discussing?



The iboats.com catalogue says it replaces OEM equipment for

CHRYSLER FORCE F697140
HONDA 90508-ZW1-003 For: 75-90 HP
MERCURY MARINE 14-31210
MERCURY MARINE 14-816629
PLEASURECRAFT R096117

I have this type of set up on my 40 hp Mercury 4 stroke motor on my pontoon boat, and s a similar set up on my two Mercruiser outdrives on the Sea Ray. No problems with them for me.

Joe.

[marvin4239]

Is there a chance someone was trying to steal your prop and had lossened the nut?

[tpbrady]

Joe,

That was it. I checked the prop the night before in the driveway and all was as it should be. I think I am going to go back to the classic cotter pin or the same clip augmented by safety wire. I am leaning toward a hub failure of some kind. I don't see how that clip could fail.

[Coastie Dory]

The plastic Mercury hubs do get loose from new and usually need to be tightened again. I have never seen one get so bad the tabs allowed the elastic nut to back off though. Perhaps someone was trying to remove it and was interrupted! At least you were lucky enough to get it back.

There are some very nice prop locks available to prevent this from happening again. They are cheap when compared to the price of a new prop or being stranded.

Best of luck,

Randy

[Jack in Alaska]

Tom,
So it was your turn to put on "the show" at the Whittier dock last weekend. Glad you retrieved your prop.

It happened to me in Homer while driving a friends boat with an I/O. The nut backed off in Halibut Cove but the prop did not come off until stopping at the Homer Dock.

Jack on HIGH TIDE (parked for the winter)