So I replaced the upper/lower bronze bushings and seals as well as a new shaft in a friend of mines 25 hp Kohler GD long tail.
I did just like the GD instructions say and was able to turn the shaft by hand so I know that they were installed correctly. When running, the upper shaft bushing gets hot. I've adjusted the u-joint to try and get it into alignment so that the upper bushing doesn't wear. After messing with it several times it still gets hot, so I told him to run it to see where the bushing is wearing to adjust it. After 20 minutes tops of run time the shaft got hot enough it sheared in half. This seems to me a little ridiculous that even the GD instruction manual shows how to adjust the u-joint with upper bushing wear as an alignment tool. Personally I didn't like the fact that GD doesn't use oil-impregnated bushings and that the customer is required to ream them out to size. There really isn't another way to check for alignment besides wear on the bushing.
Anyone have any recommendations or cool tricks to fix this besides by a Backwater motor
.
Thanks
Scott
