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View Full Version : The 4/9 bearing issue......


Drobie
07-02-2002, 04:34 PM
What happens otherwise is that if it's at 50%, you have a full-wave tuning fork. It makes ALL KINDS of noise when you get to the magic frequency (speed of sound / length of shaft).

By setting it off-center, the two sides of the shaft oscillate at different natural frequencies and keep each other quiet.

If you skip the "center" bearing, it will run as a 1/2 wave tuning fork at a much lower frequency (1/4 of the frequency when set at 50%).

If you have a 9" long driveshaft (measured between end bearings) then put the center bearing 4" from the prop side, which means 5" from the motor side.

(Andy) I have a couple more questions about this.....

Is "noise" synonymous with vibration?

At what point (length) or under what conditions are 3 bearings preferable to 2?

AndyKunz
07-02-2002, 06:52 PM
Yes.

I don't know - I use 3 on everything from 10" up. On the smaller boats (O Sport) I used two - center and prop, with motor as the third.

Andy

Bill Sellers
07-03-2002, 08:18 AM
Doug,

I wasn't privy to your earlier discussion, but speaking from a physics background, noise is caused by vibration. Andy's solution to reducing the vibration will reduce the noise as well as make the drive train run more efficiently since energy is not being wasted in producing unwanted motion.

Bill