BoatBuildingOnline.com

[Wet-Willy]

What do you do when you're out boating and your prop tags a rock,breaking only the shear pin?You pull on shore and replace it.Simple .

But what if you have no spare shear pin and no tools?

Here's the story.My friend and I were out testing my new 1970 Evinrude 4hp on my old 12' aluminum.All was going well until the motor suddenly reved high and kicked up.I stopped it and checked the prop.Bust shear pin.We'd driven into an unexpectedly shallow area and tagged a rock.AAARGH!

We rowed to shore.Not having any tools on hand,and only a spare cotter pin and 2 nails for parts,we did a bit of MacGuyver style work.

1.Break the legs off the rusty old cotter pin.(no challenge there)
2.Use 1 nail to pry the old pin out.
3.Use a small carabeener as a wrench to spin the prop nut loose.
4.Remove the prop and all 3 pieces of shear pin.
5.Now the hard part.Take a nail,set it on a hard granite rock,and bash it with anouther granite rock at about the point on the nail you want to cut it.(the size of a shear pin)This took 20min of bashing to ding the nail enough to bend and break.
6.Use carabeener to give you a better grip while you bend the nail back and forth on th bashed point till it breaks.
7.Now rub the ends of the nail hard against a granite rock.This works as a makeshift file to shorten the pin to the right length.
8.Put the newly made pin in the sheapin hole,replace the prop,and use the carabeener again to tighten down the prop nut.
9.Insert new cotterpin in the prop nut and you're underway again.

The lesson?If you don't leave shore with a few tools and spare parts,you sure as heck better have good improvisational skills.You'll eventually need one or the other.
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"If the women don't find you handsome,they should at least find you handy."

[Calico]

Amazing what you can do when you HAVE to do it isn't it? Bet you'll have a couple spares along now, eh?
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Strange but not a Stranger

[Wet-Willy]

I do now.And a small pair of pliers too.
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"If the women don't find you handsome,they should at least find you handy."

[Dave JZ]

WEll at least you know for future reference what to do... it's funny the small things we don't take along and take for granite. Seems like whenever you have the tools and parts to fix nothing goes wrong but as soon as you don't have what you need.... all heck breaks loose.
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it's only what you make of it!!!

[Wet-Willy]