Albatross prop removal

[Diomedea]

Hello all, I'd appreciate some of your wisdom and experience.
I'm rebuilding a Continental and now need to remove the prop.
This is held on by a captive tubular nut (left hand thread) which I have eased and undone. This pulled the prop down the shaft and there seems to be a split sleeve on the shaft.
The nut has reached the end of it's travel, i.e. has come off the end of the shaft but the propellor is still on the shaft. See the attached picture.
I think I need some form of puller or pusher to get the prop the remaining length of the sleeve. It has already moved about 20mm.
So ideas for next steps please.
it would be great to get the shaft out completely but the brass nut at the other end is not budging and it's too close to the rubber seal at the moment to get some heat to ease it. Once the prop is off I can move the shaft up, apply some heat to see if that works.
Thanks in advance for the assistance.

P1020619.jpg (18.79 KiB) Viewed 13867 times

[themaryons]

Hmmm... wish I could help...but I'm as confused as you are ....

"Come on someone ...don't just read ...help the man ! "

TTFN Darren

[Jaguar]

A puller should get it off but I expect the rudder will need to be removed first. Alternatively, use an ali drift. We used to have a length of Ali bar, about an 1" sq I think. Cut one end at an angle around 15 to 20 deg. should be ok. Then at 90 deg to the angled end, file or machine in a half round groove to match the shaft dia (3/4" dia). By putting in the groove you increase the contact area. The first angle allows the drift to have clearance on the P brkt. Try some heat on the prop and give it a good thump (or two). Best of luck!

[Diomedea]

Thanks guys, pullers ordered so I'll give that the first try.
I think the captive nut is very clever and should have pulled the sleeve off the taper.
So let's see what happens.
Watch this space.

[Tatra Man]

As far as I'm aware, the shaft will come past the rudder but not with the prop. still attached. Your answer, therefore, is either the one you've chosen - use a puller to take the prop. off the shaft - or remove the rudder and take the shaft and prop. out as one unit.

[Diomedea]

Firstly thanks for the inputs, much appreciated.
Managed to get it done!
1) Made parallel bar clamp to hold the shaft to let me get the big brass "engine nut" off.
2) After a bit of wriggling and trying various orientations eventually removed the rudder.
3) The forward shoulder of the prop was somewhat bevelled to made a sleeve/washer to give purchase to the puller.
4) Fitted a little "top hat" to the end of the captive nut to avoid damage by the puller.
Bingo!
In the pics you can see that the nut is captive in the prop between a shoulder on the rear face and the sleeve which is split, is parallel on the outside and tarred on the inside.
When reassembled the nut pushes against the sleeve which expands on the taper and locks the prop. The outside of the sleeve appears to be hand fettled and so may have to be replaced at some point.
Now moving onto the next task.

[Tatra Man]

Oooerrr! You appear to have a parallel bore prop. on a tapered shaft and someone has made up that split sleeve to allow it to be fitted.

[themaryons]

" Oooeeerr indeed ! "

[Alacrity]

I am no Albi expert to say the very least but I have seen this before on another one & he had to remove his prop after clouting the bottom at Loch Lomond recently & it was off in a trice. It is designed, so I am told, to slip if it makes contact with anything & be easy to remove, hence no keyays. Very clever BRITISH engineering that works.

[Tatra Man]

Interesting. I assume it relies heavily on the thread being correct for the shaft rotation. I say this because there was someone selling four Albatross prop-shafts on eBay (finished yesterday) which he said were left over from when he owned a Continental yet three of the four were clockwise threads which ought only to be suitable for Alpines. Another odd thing was that they were all different lengths and had different thread pitches.