I had contacted the place I had bought the Flex coupeling from, but did not get the wiser about my disassembly problem. Then this morning I received an answer from the company that sold me the new diesel engine. Bingo! I needed to screw three bolts into the face of the coupling, to disassemble. I never received any instructions with the purchase, they e-mailed me later a shortened set of instructions on a similar coupling. But no where was I to know about these three bolts. They did not come with the purchase and I fortunately found the right size for them in my dungeons. I could have saved at least 15 hours of hard work and two divers working on it as well for a couple hours.
Anyway. I am happy. I also managed to get the old packing out while I pushed the shaft out. Water gushed in and it was a delicate operation but I got the plug in and now I can get on with the replacement. I will double check the shaft allignment. I shall make one more effort to see if I can find a folding prop and or a replacement for just the blades. Otherwise it will be the old fixed prop.
Wolfgang and Inge of “Stella Maris”, who I met in Constanta, are on their way here. I am looking forward to their company.