water up flex shaft

[pappystoys]

I am getting lots of water up my flex shaft and its greased up and everything. How can I stop it?

[Foamaholic]

I have read to put a small length of water line or fuel tubing around the motor end of the stuffing tube, and make it long enough to go around the prop shaft too.

[martin]

Yep the silicon water tube on the end of the stuffing tube works well, Just make sure the I/D of the water tube isnt to tight on the flex as you will generate heat on the flex.

[martin]

Some also use a vaccuum hose plug from auto stores, you simply drll a hole in the end of the plug the diam of your shaft then slide over the stuffing tube. Dead simple to do as their soft plastic.

[1945dave]

Hello again Pappy. Yep, you have the Genesis assortment of issues that we all seem to have. My question for you however is how did you determine all that water is coming up your flex shaft?

I am going to start a more technical discussion regarding the Genesis transom/mounting brackets/ bolts and water intrusion for any of those that want to throw this subject arround a little bit. In all the threads regarding the water issue I never once saw anyone suggest doing what i did. I took out all the electronics and then hung the boat bow up and filled the rear of the cockpit or the insides of the boat with water up to the open hatch area. In other words I put a lot of water in the boat trying to see where it came out. I was shocked. The whole back end leaked like a sive. I expected a few drops of water perhaps but heck I could have filled up a small glass in about 3 minutes. The oddity for me was from day one i got too much water inside the boat and went the whole nine yards trying to correct the problem with the flex shaft using thick grease, shrink tubing around the nose of the strut bracket, even a piece of shrink tubing over the end of the stuffing box tube shrunk down around the flex cable at the motor end inside the boat. All of this helped but did not eliminate the problem, just kind of made the problem more managable. I stuffed foam rubber in the bottom and after a run would squeeze out the excess water that collected in the foam. This should have been the last of that story but then lately I notices the amount of water was increasing. There had to be a reason. So look for my new post on this subject. "Don't blaime the flex shaft for all that water".

[martin]

On any rtr boat its been my experience re leaks you should remove every single nut & bolt on the hard ware & seal them & loctite on everything that dosnt have nylock nuts on ecspecially the allen grub screw that holds the servo steering arm on the rudder. In fact i throw them away & fit an allen cap screw as you can never really get them grubs nice & tight without rounding out the hex. Lots of other areas that leak on these rtr boat as well.

[pappystoys]

This morning I filled up the tub and let the bolt sit for a little bit any there was a ton of water coming in from the hardware bolts. So I toke them all out and loctited them all and a little bit of 3m adhesive in with them. Everything is sealed up tight now. But i am still getting water up the shaft so I am going to try one of these ideas

[paultbg]

Then I guess I am lucky and the Chinese guy who made my Genesis was careful as my boat is running very dry, not a single drop of water inside.
I have tighten all the bolts prior first run and I have grease the flex with marine grease.
Also i have mounted some shrink tube covering the end of shaft entering the strut.

[martin]

Yes thats an area that can leak badly where the stuffing tube joins the strut & should be sealed.

[1945dave]

Paul that is good to know that your Genesis does not get even a drop of water inside. That is an inspiration for the rest of us that it can be done, thanks.

[paultbg]

Dave, what can I say? Obviously my post was not meant for you.After all you are in modelling from '60, few good years before I was born.
For sure there is nothing that you can learn from me.Therefore please ignore my posts from now on,ok?
If you still can't ignore them then please leave the sarcasm outside the forum.
I know that you are a reasonable guy and you will understand my request.

[1945dave]

No problem Paul, but it was not meant as sarcasm. It is a new experience for me to even worry about a few drops of water inside the boat. In the radio box perhaps but inside the boat was just part of being in the water. We had things like the ezbailer which was a aluminum tube with a floating ball that stuck out the transom on a small angle and the idea was any cockpit water would flow out but when you came to a stop the ball would float up the tube and cut the incoming flow of water to a trickle HaHa. Anyway, Paul I think that is the second time you had a problem with my post as being sarcastic. I am truly sorry, that is not my style.

Dave