This is my setup. I put the cavitation plate 15 degrees off the shaft, but it seems to be excessively long. Almost 16" from the shaft to 1-2" past the prop. I don't remember my buddies go devil being that long. Is this about the size of yours? (The bar behind the tape measure is just for mock up, it's not the actual plate)

Mine is 10" wide, and 12" long... it could stand to be a bit longer. I dont think you are far off.

Sweet! Let me know how she runs in the water!

Your prop doesn't need to be sticking out that far from the shaft housing. It will be bent in no time if you run it as it is in that picture.

Do you think it would be that bad? Or do I need to trim the shaft down.

How far are yours out? Myne is 4" and the skeg is almost 2" deeper than the prop

1/4" to 1/2"

Might be hard to do with the skeg being that close

It's only tacked so I can just grind her off or just cut it with the plasma on the shaft. Thank you for letting me know of the flaw!

This is a pretty good picture to go by. Right after the driveshaft housing, you need a nut. There should be an 1/8" gap between the housing and that first nut. Then your propeller threads on. Then another nut. Lastly you add a nylock nut. Grind your skeg off and reposition once your prop looks like the picture below.

In not using a threaded shaft on this current motor, it's a tapered prop and shaft. But yes. I will make sure the prop is as close as possible to the housing. And modify the skeg. Thank you for giving me a heads up!

Is that an aluminum prop? I haven't seen a SS without threads

Yah is aluminum. If I eat through too many props, I'll make a threaded shaft for myself and run a ss. But for now, I'm just giving it a college try and doing it the cheapest possible

Make sure you bring plenty on your maiden voyage. Not trying to be a dik. Just talking from experience. I can't remember if it was 3 or 4 that I ran down to the nub and I only got 100 yards from where I put the boat in

Yeah I'll always have a spare. I figured I can go through 8 aluminum for 1 stainless. So I'll try it out. And I tig weld aluminum anyways, so patching them up for spares is no big deal.
What kind of areas do you run in trouser? I'll mostly be in Mississippi mud and veggies, things that arnt too abrasive

I run in some nasty stuff. but don't we all. I would break all the blades off on cat tails. I mean that the whole fins would fall off. Of youare running in places that has twigs that are bigger than a half inch diameter the blades will be broken off.if you are dead set on going with the aluminumthen bring 8 of them with you. and that is not a joke

My .02:
My cavitation plates are 15.5" long.

I leave about 3/4-1" of shaft between the seals and the first nut. Seems like you will always have veg. wrapped up and a little room to get a razor knife in there makes quick work.

Pat

I already cut the shaft. I have like 3/4" sticking out. So I feel comfortable with that. trouser, I have $20 in this current shaft because my buddie works at a hydraulic cylinder shop, so it's actually a chromed hydraulic ram cylinder. So if I'm unhappy with aluminum, it's as simple as getting another shaft for 18$ at cost, throwing in on the mill and rolling some threads on if it comes down to it. I wanted to try the cheep way to see how this motor even works haha

Well I got myne all done, first time out this happened.


But it's not due to the prop being inferior. What happened is the set screw backed itself out, causing the shaft to shoot forward until it hit the ujoint and the prop ate itself up on the support tube till it broke off a blade.

So here is my question, how is everyone's u joint to shaft connection held in place? Pinned? Lock tite Setscrew(s), bolt drilled all the way through shaft? Shear pin drilled through?

there is only 1 setscrew on my shaft, I torqued, loosened then torqued probibally 4x to "seat" it. But obviously that wasn't enough because the setscrew was gone when I heard the bang.

Tac it in place

I have my set screws red loctited. In addition to the press fit keys, then on the stainless shaft I have shaft collars with additional set screws on the upper and lower.

Also did you find that the aluminum props are advertized as having a 1/4" keyway but it actually measures 3/16"?

heres a pic...

Flint- it is just keyed on either end. No slip yoke.
Jeramy- I ordered my props on ebay and the information there at the time said 3/16ths for the prop. I'm thinking I will drill some more setscrews and add a collar on both ends.
What do you have that the collar backs up to? As when it gets forced forward to the motor, what do you have that the collar hits to stop it.

Thats a teething problem .
When you refit the U joint take the set screw out and you can carefully drill a wee divit into the shaft, that will help hold it tight and use lock tight.
Looks good.

SOn of a biatch!...

Well the good news. I took the motor/boat for its first spin.It did well. Took right off. The motor wanted to lift out of the water. I pulled back to the launch and tweaked the cav plate. That did the trick. The boat ran great. I hit 13mph. I am happy with that.

I did run into a couple other issues. The kill switch has the push button that is to easy to bump. I also may bump the tiller arm a couple inches higher.

I got some great pics and video of it running.

So here is the bad news...

After my son videoed a couple laps and some roostertailing hole shots, I put him in the boat with me and used my phone to check the speed. Then I decided to get some footage of the motor and the ride from inside the boat.

while running the motor with my left hand, and recording with my right, the phone slipped out of my hands and right into the drink. We doubled back and searched forever... my phone belongs to the lake now.

Made for an expensive trip... but even more frustrating is the fact that I dont have any pics or videos to show off.

Man that sucks! Glad it runs though!!

Dude that sux. I did the same thing before. Cool that it runs good for ya

I made some adjustments to my cav plate. it was a bit of a workout keeping the prop submerged, so i put a steaper angle on it. hoping to get it back in the water for round two.

I will be leaving my phone on the shore.

I had to adjust myne alot. I'm betting it's almost 30 degrees now

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https://youtu.be/A5z1TBteehM

took it for another spin. The cav plate is perfect. The bugs are officially worked out.

another video...

https://youtu.be/oob1gNHtlDw

Good job , looks well built . And you now know how to fix anything that goes wrong.

H Finn

Guess you have more than $600 in it now....

Nice build though. Good job on getting it right from the get go...