first run today and.....

[jnation89]

about 5 minutes in the flexshaft froze in the stuffing tube and i had to retreive it from the middle of the lake. i took it home and barely removed the shaft to right where it froze. anyone have any idea what happened?
ive had a few boats had broke a shaft but never anything like this.


oh yaa up until the shaft freezing it ran awsome and turned on a dime, so i would really like to get this fixed and get back on the water.

[airman66285]

about 5 minutes in the flexshaft froze in the stuffing tube and i had to retreive it from the middle of the lake. i took it home and barely removed the shaft to right where it froze. anyone have any idea what happened?
ive had a few boats had broke a shaft but never anything like this.


oh yaa up until the shaft freezing it ran awsome and turned on a dime, so i would really like to get this fixed and get back on the water.

Please don't think this is a stupid question but did you grease the flex shaft before you ran it?

[jac4412]

The only time I've heard of someone having those problems is A) They've ruined their flexshaft and B) they have not greased it

[jnation89]

i greased it good...plus it already had a ton on it....now that i got it all out i tried putting a different flex shaft in and i cant even get the nylon tubing in. never had these kind of problems. any suggestions?

[JimClark]

sure the motor was turning the correct direction?

[jnation89]

yes i checked the prop before i even left the house. and any ideas on why i cant even fit the nylon tubing back in?

[GeoVW72]

yes i checked the prop before i even left the house. and any ideas on why i cant even fit the nylon tubing back in?
Is the nylon tubing damaged?
Is it not going in period or only partway in?

I ran mine for a few minutes and the nylon stuffing tube rode up toward the collet. Maybe it ate yours?
I have yet to grease mine, came loaded with some black grease
lake was choppy so I was only hitting half throttle to be cautious
no problems yet :unsure:

[jnation89]

got it in a few inches, then it just doesnt want to move anymore. came out fine, but now it wont go back in. it doesnt look damaged, only the flex shaft a little at the end of the stuffing tube.

[Rumdog]

Were you running it with the stock prop?

[jnation89]

yepp...i actually have a video of it freezing if anyone thinks that would help figure out what happened.

[Doby]

I have seen boats where the nylon tube has twisted itself inside the stuffing tube and caused things to sieze up.....can you see any obstructions in the stuffing tube?

[electric]

I have seen boats where the nylon tube has twisted itself inside the stuffing tube and caused things to sieze up.....can you see any obstructions in the stuffing tube?

Possibly run a more rigid wire through there to see if you can "push" it out. Maybe you can also check the length of the remaining nylon tube to see if what Doby is describing happened?

[jnation89]

ohh i got it out...and there was no visible damage to the nylon tube. the flex shaft did had a spot where you can see it seized in the stuffing tube all the way in the back. im just trying to figure out what could of happened to cause this. and how to get the nylon tubing back in it goes about 3 inches and doesnt want to move any farther. ive looked into the stuffing tube and cant see anything that is wrong.

[Doby]

Can you get it in from the motor end? Might have to remove the motor.

I usually add a few drops of CA glue to each end to hold it in place..has worked well for me over the years. If it still won't go in, sounds like the inside wall of the stuffing tube got scratched/ nicked etc and has caused an obstruction.

Can you get the flex cable in with out the nylon tube? If so, grease up the cable and run it without the nylon tube. Lots of people run without it with no issues as long as its properly greased.

[jac4412]

Prop spinning in reverse too quickly or if the shaft somehow caught it can cause a small section to freeze like that... Did you put on a new prop/mess around with the stock one? You might have inadvertently affected the flex shaft (didnt see a confirmation that it was the stock prop)

[Darin Jordan]

Is the outter stuffing tube damaged in any way. Sounds like there may be a kink/dent in it somewhere. Teflon should slide right inside. Please let us know.

[jnation89]

i look into the stuffing tube and dont see any damage. plus just the flex shaft slides in fine, but the tubing just wont go in. it came out fine once i got the shaft unstuck, but wont go back in. and it was 100% stock i havent even tried a new prop.

[Steven Vaccaro]

Ok, we have figured out that there is something in there. Try putting something smaller down the brass stuffing tube and see where it hits and it its solid. See if it will move from the motor side, if it doest try the strut side. I'm not sure what the strut bearing looks like yet, but I'm wondering if it could be part of the strut bearing.

[jnation89]

i slid just the shaft in and it goes in no problem, but the sleave is a different story. its like it is too big, which i know isnt whats wrong.

[Steven Vaccaro]

i slid just the shaft in and it goes in no problem, but the sleave is a different story. its like it is too big, which i know isnt whats wrong.

Well if the shaft goes in and there is absolutely no interference, its probably the Teflon. Try stretching it a bit to see it you can slide it further down the tube.

[Darin Jordan]

Well if the shaft goes in and there is absolutely no interference, its probably the Teflon. Try stretching it a bit to see it you can slide it further down the tube.

I'm a little unclear on what is going on.

If the shaft slides into the teflon just fine, but the teflon won't slide into the stuffing tube, then something has to be wrong with the stuffing tube.

If you slide the teflon in, and it stops part way, you've found your interference point. It's either kinked, or dented, or ???.

NOW, that being said... and keep in mind that I haven't had mine apart yet to examine the teflon to see what type they use, but sometimes these boats come with a much harder, white colored teflon liner that isn't very flexible. I usually pull it out and replace it with standard Octura or ??? style teflon like Steven sells at OSE.

However, if the old teflon came out, then it should go back in, IF the brass stuffing tube is not collapsed somewhere and is otherwise undamaged.

Very interested in figuring this out, so please feedback your findings...

[jnation89]

ok now ive got somewhere.
first i checked the tubing as good as i can and see no obstructions. its really like the teflon tubing got bigger after i took it out. so i tried what steven said and stretched it out a little making it thinner. oiled it up and got it alot farther, but still not all the way. this is weird. also any ideas on why it seized in the first place? and while i got you guys here what prop would you recommend for a hop up? thanks for all the help

[Darin Jordan]

also any ideas on why it seized in the first place? and while i got you guys here what prop would you recommend for a hop up? thanks for all the help


OK, I'm just guessing here... I haven't had a chance to pull mine apart yet, so I don't have a good idea of what is there to start with.

My guess is that there was tight spot in the teflon that got heated up when running (5-minutes is actually quite a bit of run-time, so things can get warm) and when it heated up, it expanded the teflon, making it tighter ID, and expanding the OD.

"normal" (Non-RTR) teflon, usually fits into the tube fairly loosely. The tolerances on stock teflon might be a little tighter.

All just guesses, of course. Could have just been a bad piece of teflon and an anomoly, unique to your bad and just bad luck. Hopefully it's not something more widespread, but luckily, it's an easy thing to correct (buy some teflon liner from OSE.com and get back to running.)... Hopefully that's not required, however.

I'll try to get on my "race prep" soon, so I can explore and maybe highlight some areas that can be made more reliable and "race ready" with some tweaking...

[jnation89]

ok so what size teflon liner should i buy? thanks again that does make sense.

[Steven Vaccaro]

ok so what size teflon liner should i buy? thanks again that does make sense.

I dont have my Geico boat here to measure, how long is the stuffing tube? I may have a loose piece hanging around that I could send.

[GeoVW72]

What end did you remove it from?

I removed mine from the motor end of the tube and it fit very loose.
It was also clear Teflon that looks decent
There's about 2 in of solid strut rod on the prop end of the shaft

Maybe the flex shaft tried to extrude the Teflon out the strut when it got hot and then froze :unsure:

I'll measure the Teflon and post part pics tomorow

[Diesel6401]

Did you guys read this? http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/showthread.php?p=225193&posted=1#post225193

Could be the issue in this case as well.