Lost a blade on my 3-blade Mercury Lightning ET yesterday HELP

[St]

Hi! Lost at blade on my prop yesterday and sadly the blade took a piece from my Sport Master.

I have another prop to run with, but the question is: Is my Sportmaster good to go? Or will it fall in to pieces if I just keep running it? Could it be dangerous to run at high speed? What shall I do?

The gear case is almost brand new and is in super good shape aside from this.

Some more info about my boat:

Boat: Allison SS 2000
Motor: Mercury 2.5 EFI 280
Top speed: 108 mph

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Oskar

 

[FloridaGS]

Structurally the spot should be ground out to remove a potential running Crack, and have a gusset welded back in. It should look flawless afterwards...you could use torque tabs for the gusset material....thx for sharing the photos.

 

[Jr in Jax]

Agreed, very fixable. It seems like everyone's ET fails, most sooner than later....

 

[RedAllison]

"It seems like everyone's ... Merc prop, fill in the blank... fails, most sooner than later."

Should be a warning on the box.

 

[GotMyAlly]

They oughta include spare blades in the box......

 

[K-DAWG XB 2003]

I wouldn't do any grinding with out getting it PT'ed first. There might not even be a crack to grind. I would definitely replace whats broken off. If you look online I am sure you can find a do it yourself dye penetrant test kit.

 

[FloridaGS]

You would want to grind it to good metal then repair then PT the unit
Also consider what PTs today may not a month from now if you do not repair and if there is a crack running over time...

Generally repair then test.

 

[K-DAWG XB 2003]

Either way if there is a crack, it must be ground out before you repair. With Aluminum its tricky you may be able to VT 5X the damaged area and identify any cracking you may not. If you weld over a crack you didn't know was there it will probably continue cracking. Do it how ever you want but, where I work we identify the crack and grind it out then repair. Of course if its Aluminum we also PT the final weld.

 

[FloridaGS]

As a machinist I do not disagree with a prework PT...And as you state an after work PT...luckily this damage is not in a critical high speed area if repaired in the most assuming fashion. From what I see, the foot is still good to...

 

[St]

Thanks for all the good input!

I will let a pro go through and repair the case.

Did get a hold of a almost new Sport that I will run this summer instead.

Which prop do you think hold up better: Mercury Lightning ET or Mazco re3?

 

[garyroholt]

I've had 2 et's throw blades fortunately not at the gear case,. I wold definitely get the gear case damage repaired professionally or I would expect additional stress cracking even if there is none now.