Hi, Norm, and list,
I didn't have to do what you did in my recent disassembly of my KISS, but I
have a couple of addenda.
First is that separation of the rotor and stator is very straightforward.
Just take a rubber or wood mallet and tap from the rear downward with the
rotor stood on something other than your fiberglass deck :{)) Be ready to
catch it as it separates. No biggie at all.
The bearings go into silicon or some similar bushings which are made from a
single strip, jam fit into receivers on the fin and nose ends. Those strips
are tapered to help center the of-necessity off-centered (clinging to the
stator with its monster magnets) rotor. They CAN come out, as my nose
bearing did. If you're going to have it apart, put in new - SVHotwire.com
(John and Libbie at the show) sells them inexpensively - as they can wear
from vibration, and work out of the receiver
My reassembly involved drilling out stripped-out helicoils (three of them -
don't know if the factory is now using helicoils to resolve the stripping
you experienced - had pulled away from the fiberglass housing) receivers,
filling with fiberglass epoxy resin (I used West System), drilling out for a
tap, and tapping the new holes. If you had 10-24 helicoils, you could
retrofit those if yours didn't have them originally, but solid epoxy,
drilled and tapped is good, too. I used the stator as my centering tool.
SVHotwire.com sells phillips headed bolt replacements in case you got tired
of having the bit slip off the factory flat-blade tops :{)) Reassembly is
the reverse - get the stator in position, held by loose fitted bolts, tap
the rotor into the rear receiver. Remove the bolts and put on the nose in
the same fashion - tap with a soft hammer until the receiver catches and
centers the bearing. If you're going to remove it, spend a couple of bucks
and get a new seal for the housing, too. Grease liberally - there's a weep
hole at the front of the housing which will express excess grease, but you
want not to get any water in there if you can help it; the grease will help
keep it out.
Mine didn't have a rubber gasket - instead Hotwire recommends GE silicone II
sealant (as you said, do that before tightening the bolts). Tighten it down
very gently, let it sit for a couple of days to firm up and then tighten
fully to give a gasket effect, wait a few days to fully cure, trim overrun
if you want a really clean look, and back out the bolts until you can also
seal those. Done...
Second is balancing the prop. I used to be model airplaner with 20k+ RPM
engines and so had some experience in balancing props. KISS should come
with a balancing spindle, a specially threaded and tapered job. I had one,
but for the life of me can't find it so ordered another from John - $15 bux.
The best $15 I have spent on this boat, but only because I followed up with
absolutely anal balancing.
It was occasioned by my blades failing, so I had a new set of blades to work
with. Supposedly balanced at the factory, that's only static - they weigh
the same, but the dynamic balancing is altogether different. I wound up
having to add weight to one blade and remove from two. The lead strips
attached to the blades are also available from Hotwire, in case you need to
start over.
Just in case the mechanism of this isn't apparent to those not endowed with
my history, I'll expand a bit, trying to be SOMEWHERE close to the
instructive level of Norm :{))
The spindle has ~1/4" ends about 3/4" long - those are your axle. If you
had a stationary shop, you could do better than I - my prop rig was two
straight razor edges far enough apart for the prop, and set perfectly
level - and use a couple of steel straightedges (again perfectly level) set
on two benches the appropriate distance apart, or you could use a vice with
a wide enough throat and long enough width, though that wouldn't allow full
rotation, for your axle seats. Screw the spindle in firmly (to avoid wobble)
and commence balancing.
In my case, I used a fiddle on the workbench, reasonably level, and a large
screwdriver, held eyeballed at "level" in both the axle and prop planes. I
didn't think fast enough. I had a level in my tools which would have done a
better job :{)) In any case, the axle ends were then free to rotate easily
on a hard surface. With the size of the prop (5' diameter), the very small
axle made for very easy movement with any imbalance.
I commenced to balancing, and didn't have a clue about how much of the lead
tape to cut off on each so I started gingerly. Once I saw that 1/4" strips
didn't have much effect, I got a bit bolder, and as I realized that one was
significantly lighter than the other two, rather than remove the majority of
lead strip from the two, I started taking bigger hunks from the heavier and
applying them to the single lighter one. Each time I did this process, I
started with the lightened blade horizontal. If I'd taken too much, it
would rise. If too little, it would fall. Rinse, repeat - in my case, for
a total, probably, of 10 hours at the end, occasioned by having to remove
the prop and trim the tape, and then get it all lined up again before I
recommenced the balancing. The lightened ones never rose - I just kept
repeating until I got to the end... Back to the story...
Eventually I got to the point where the blade was rotating slowly, rather
than falling like a stone. I then started nibbling, doing max 1/4, but
most, as I got closer, 1/8" or less. (When I was doing model airplane
props, it was sanding a little at the end, after I'd used a razor knife to
shorten in the big steps.). The lead strip is adhered such that a careful
cut with a razor knife will allow you to peel off the adjustment easily. As
mentioned, in the beginning, I reused those longer - 1" down to 1/2" -
strips to weight the light blade. If you want to do something like that,
just be very careful of the adhesive when you handle it and where you stick
it until you reuse it. Doing it that way meant that I took off
substantially less on the heavy blades than I'd have had to if not weighting
the light blade.
Eventually, it took a full minute for the heavy blade to rotate from
horizontal to vertical, in both directions, and moving my screwdriver ~10*
from level easily made it rotate downhill in whichever direction I moved it,
much faster than in the balancing portion, so I declared success and mounted
it to the newly sealed pole-top unit.
WOW! Nothing but whoosh, and in winds sufficient to make 25 Amps, not the
first movement of tail flutter from dead calm up through whatever wind level
that was (we don't have an anemometer at the unit - but the mast reading was
in the mid to high 20s). Ours is mounted on our arch, and in the past, we'd
get vibration which would set the danforth we had on one of the pulpit rails
singing against the rail, and our deck moaning, serenading us in our aft
cabin below. No such experience now. As there was no change, effectively,
from before to now (the receivers on the bearings should not have had any
effect of this sort) in our re-do, I can only assume it was the balancing
which did the trick.
I have another set of lead strips, so if, for whatever reason, our balance
changes (weathering, some oddball chip, whatever), I can do it again. While
we were VERY happy with our KISS before, we're ecstatic, now. Those of you
who happen to be in our cruising area this winter (southern Bahamas), when
the northers are common, will have a chance to see it, and compare it to the
many other KISS mounted on other boats.
John (Hotwire), before I broke down and bought the second spindle, suggested
the factory balancing would be fine until I found another cruiser with one
to loan me. Based on my experience, I disagree. I suspect vibration was
what caused my bearing receiver in the nose to come out of its seat - and
that was with a very satisfactory level of noise and flutter. Norm's
experience with vibration causing electrical problems might well have been
avoided if the prop didn't have any vibration.
Oh, ya, one other fillip - seen from the side, the prop tips line up exactly
when they're spinning. John (Hotwire) tells me that's NEVER seen. Mind
you, I couldn't very well take a micrometer up there, but certainly, with
the best an eyeball from 5' can tell, they are perfectly aligned. I think
it has to be the balancing. YMMV :{))
L8R, y'all
Skip, over killer wifi in Marsh Harbour
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
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