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Mark Borgerson

In article , says...

I've come to the point of cutting. I'll not go back with a bearing unless
forced to do so; my analysis and comparison of the prior installation (when
we bought the boat) strongly suggests that when I fix what I presume to be
the problem (excessive length beyond the cutlass, exacerbated by a dinged
prop), the earlier referenced self foot-shooting, the whip will disappear.
I'll be going quite a bit further than the previous installation in removing
excess length beyond the cutlass, so much the better (methinks, anyway).

And, I'd thought to do the opposed cuts, too. That way, should I succeed in
snapping it open on the top with a chisel or other splitter, the halves
would have room to move (making it easier to split/deform) toward each other
on the bottom.

Thanks, all. Pix to follow. Current debate internally is about dremel or
grinder, both of which I have aboard. Seems to me, with the horses
available, that a dremel would take figuratively forever, but, OTOH, might
have lesser possibilities for shaft impingement ($2 word meaning cut!) due
to slower progress and lighter weight presuming better control. Maybe both,
with the gross cutting done with the grinder...

Hmmm. Thinking about it, I believe that the dremel wheels might not be deep
enough to penetrate all the way. I'll have to see when I dig it out.

So, perhaps today, I'll have both of my vexing challenges settled, as I'll
also be EZ-outing my headless bolt...

The dremel wheel may not cut through the whole bearing at once. Your
maximum cut depth will be about 0.5" with a new wheel---less as it
wears.

However, you may be able to cut the outer race first, remove it and
the balls or rollers, then have a pretty shallow cut on the inner race.

While the Dremel doesn't have the power of a large grinder, it has to
remove much less metal---as the wheels are only about 1/16" thick.

Mark Borgerson