Pressing in the cutlass bushing

First thing was coat the bore and bush with dish soap
Pressed in was easy at first, then the wood split after 70% of the way.
Maybe could have warmed strut with a torch a little.
Very tight fit.



I switch to a used up cutlass and no wood to finish, and it popped with every handle pull all the way in
This is a 50 ton jack. old bushing is visible.
This old bushing is also ground smaller to a sliding fit in case I need to press out a cutlass
20 years ago I pressed in Vesconite. It held up until lines wrapped the shaft then dug into the bushing end like 2 inches got eaten, melted.
The replacement bushes are the original brass with rubber.
To get out the vesconite, used a sawzall to cut the bush, then a thin screwdriver and 2 lb sledge and cracked out the plastic in pieces.

20 years ago, used grease and It seemed to slide in easier than dish soap. It also never moved out of place. These struts have no set screws.

 

These bushes fit so tightly, I don't think much else could work.
This site shows a contraption, I think it would have slipped on me.
20 years ago, I recall how tight these are in these struts

Replacing a Strut Bearing | BoatNotes

 

Just did the second strut, and used chassis grease and went in much smoother, still tight but no popping into place.

And I had put them both in the freezer

I am not worried about grease allowing it to move, it never did with greased vesconite. And when I chipped out the vesconite, I saw no evidence of any grease left in there.
If chisel out Vesconite should wear eye protection as the chips go flying.

 

The ones I bought years ago were vesconite, they also have hilube and superlube
I will say the front 2/3 of the bushing was in perfect shape. And the prop shaft metal surface is in good shape. Vesconite advantage is super low friction and very long life unless...

The issue was small 1/4" nylon lines from crab traps wrapped around my shafts multiple times.
That blocks water flow, the lines also dug into the vesconite and ate it up. Meaning then no shaft support for like 2 inches of the bushing.
Unless you have installed working prop line cutter shaft mounted, using plastic bushes, they are going to get eaten by nylon lines when they wrap around the prop.

The prior years with standard brass and rubber bushes, never saw that happen.

Some hauls I would have a super tight ball shaped wrap of lines the size of a soft ball between the prop and the strut. Cutting away the lines, was annoyed to see had eaten into the Vesconite.
The Vesconite Hilube ready-to-fit marine bearing range