Saturday, June 27, 2009

GOING ELECTRIC PART 12: Installing the mounts

Now that the stringers have been cut to to the prop shaft angle. Now we need to install the brackets to the stringer bed. There are made up of heavy gauge aluminum as shown below:


First we make sure that they fit and will provide the proper base for the motor mounts.


The next step was to provide a level base on the stringers. Epoxy was thickened and applied to the cut stringers. This will seal the open grain and provide for a solid flat surface for the aluminum angle brackets to lay on.

If you look closely at the above picture the thickened epoxy has been laid on the stringers. Some plastic wrap has been applied over it. The aluminum angle bracket has been laid on top of this plastic. This allows the aluminum bracket to be made level without sticking to the still wet epoxy. The metal bar laying on top of the stringer will be used to make sure the bracket is level. After this step the epoxy will be allowed to cure. The plastic will be removed the aluminum brackets secured to the stringers with bolts. Then the motor mounts will be attached to the aluminum brackets and then the brackets that will hold the motor are attached to the motor mounts as shown below:

If you look closely at the prop shaft in comparison with the previous pictures you will notice the prop shaft has also been cut down by about 9 inches. In the above photo you can see that the shaft face is flush while the previous photo shows the original shaft with the key way groove. The next step is to mount the motor.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pardon my ignorance but why do you use rubber engine mounts for an electric motor? The motor should make next to no vibration, no?

Beautiful install, by the way. Nice to see such a clean engine room. And with electric, chances are good it will stay that way, too!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous:

A good question. The short answer is it was recommended by ASMO Marine. Yes, there is very little vibration but, there is some along with a healthy amount of torque. The rubber mounts help to absorb this. But, I think the main reason to have the motor mounts is to make it easier to adjust things when aligning the motor and prop shafts.

driftwood said...

Mike,

Did you have to pull the shaft to get it re-keyed? Were you able to do it or did you have to take it to a machine shop?

I know it was a while ago, but i love that you posted all this online. I'm (almost) excited for the day my next engine decides to go to the big scrapyard in the sky.

Sincerely,
Brad

Capt. Mike said...

Brad:

I did pull the shaft but, not to get it rekeyed. I I'm using a Stafford coupling that clamps around the shaft and does not need to be keyed it just clamps around the shaft. Makes things a little easier. I only pulled the shaft because I had to cut it back by about nine inches because I removed the V Drive transmission and installed the Asmo unit inline. It was cut by me and the guy who did the fiberglass work using his grinder. Took about 30 seconds.