I have a Thunder Tiger Olympian RC boat. It runs about 50 MPH on 6S, and I intend to use it with 6S (mostly) and 4S. It is a 39" long, 10.6 beam deep V-hull speed boat with a Ripper 2000KV brushless motor and an ACE RC ESC BLC-180M ESC. I measured the stock (plastic) prop, and it's 42MM in diameter. The prop's part description is "P4217-38 Thunder Tiger 5018", so I think it has a 1.7 pitch, but I'm guessing. I asked the boat manufacturer for the OE prop specs, and they said, "Our old system crashed. We are missing a lot of data. I can't find any drawings and specs about these parts." The manufacturer discontinued this model a few years ago, and aside from the prop shaft, most parts are non-existent.

It has a solid prop shaft connected to a flex shaft, so the shaft is two pieces. I forgot to lube the prop shaft, and I think it melted the brass strut bushings a little and locked up the prop shaft inside the strut bushings. This happened on my 5th run.

When the local hobby shop forced the prop shaft out of the strut, they broke the OE plastic propeller. They showed me the slight deformation in the prop shaft and said it was probably caused by overheating, causing the strut bushing to deform, too. I can't even push the prop shaft back into the strut without using a lot of force.

I've attached a few pictures of the driveline assembly, strut, prop shaft, and where the two shaft pieces meet.

rear-drive.jpgPJ6385-strut.jpgPJ6392-prop-shaft.jpgwhere prop shaft meets motor shaft.JPG

I can't find any suppliers of the original strut, strut bushings, and prop. Can anyone recommend a flex shaft, strut, strut bushings, and prop set up to replace my existing 2-piece shaft system?

Or, should I keep the flex portion and replace the strut, prop shaft, and prop?

Also, I've read on http://rcraceboat.com/Storewiredrive.html that wire drives are more reliable than flex cables. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Gaining a few extra MPH isn't my goal. Reliability and ease of maintenance is my goal. I don't mind spending more money and time to get there.