Belt drive SLS issue

[Joel]

Hi,

I was running the SLS in my DG1000 today when suddenly the prop together with the prop shaft parted company with the SLS arm. So after looking at how the drive section is assembled I found what I think is a flaw. There is a rear screw that holds the prop shaft captive. The issue is this screw is not torqued against anything. It relies on thread lock to keep it from unscrewing. The reason it is done this way is the the prop shaft does not reach to the rear surface of the rear bearing. If you over tighten the rear screw you will pull the drive pin against the front of the Torrington bearing locking the system up. The prop drive pin requires some clearance to allow the prop to windmill. Apparently mine did not have enough ( or any ) thread locking compound and came apart. I don't much like the idea of relying on thread lock to hold it together. I found some shims to stack on the rear end of the prop shaft that fit the ID of the rear bearing. This allows me to torque the screw tight and leave the clearance required between the drive pin and the Torrington bearing. All is now good. BTW, nothing was damaged when the prop flew off. I attached a drawing to help show what I'm trying to describe.

Joel

[Len]

Geez, I'm reading the description thinking, man, I hope the plane didn't get damaged. Then, I was thinking I hope nobody got hurt, ( cuts heal) fiberglass is more trouble to repair.

Seriously, I'm glad there was no damage or injury.
So from the picture, the screw rotates with the shaft. Other than the shims, whats the difference in the setup?

[Joel]

Adding the shims is the only change. Now I can tighten the rear screw until everything pulls back tight. So far seems like the way to go.

Joel