Thread: Boat help/Question

Hold a hammer against one side of it and use another hammer on the other side and straighten it out....thats a stainless prop so
you can straighten it up

Im a little nervous to do that. If I dont do anything will it hurt my boat/motor?

Nothing to be nervous about. Just put one hammer head on one side and tap on the rounded side with the other until it straightens out. Promise your not going to hurt it worse than it is. Do the same on those other spots where it hit. Then if you have any burrs just use a file to clean them up. It probably won't hurt the performance enough that you would ever notice it but it could put it out of balance just enough that over a period of time it could damage a bearing but I'm talking lots of hr's.

If you use it like that the vibration can damage your lower unit seals and cause you to lose your oil. I have reworked them with a hammer using my trailer hitch ball as an anvil but I am not normal. It is easily repaired by a good prop shop.

Hey Scotty,

You do have a back up prop? If not get one. Like has been said, take it off and get your hammer out or bring it to your local prop shop. IMO

Around Houma it only 60 bucks to have your wheel straightened and polished. Well worth the price. If you have some performance issues that can be fixed at the same time. The issues I'm talking about are like wide open throttle RPM not being at recommeded revs or too high revs on wide open throttle. The blade can be cupped to help with the hole shot and having the right size and pitch will help with saving gas and your engine. For instance, when I first got my boat it was hard to get it out the hole with 3 people in it and it would only turn 5000 RPMs instead of the 5500 at wide open throttle. I brought it to my prop shop and he adjusted the pitch to give me the 5500 RPMs and cupped it to help me get out of the hold much better. I ran it that way for 8 years without touching it until I rubbed some concrete with it at the boat launch. Once I picked up the boat I saw that there was about 1/4 inch missing of the tips of the blades. I brought it to my prop shop and he welded on material to bring it back to size and then ground and polished it to like new all for 60 bucks. I can't complain about that.
"gene"

Originally Posted by scottyl44

Im a little nervous to do that. If I dont do anything will it hurt my boat/motor?

I've always had my props worked at the Toup's Propellar in Abbeville. They work everything from small ones like yours to tug boat wheels. Worth the little money to get it done right.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm gonna take it off and bring it to a shop. It was my mistake but I'll learn. I'm new but it burns me to no end doing something so dumb! I just hope they can fix my prop fast and not have to wait 2 weeks.