Cal 29 replacement shaft and strut (R&R)

I have my 2-29 hull #918 out of the water at Cabrillo Boat Works. I will be replacing the broken stainless strut with a heavier bronze one. Martec, indicated that ss bolts are ok to use with the bronze strut. I was able to remove the old strut ss bolts easily. The nuts came right off from inside the aft lazzaret and the flat heads unscrewed from thru the hull out the bottom with ease. Removed strut in less than an hour. The shaft was a no brainer. It was old bronze and may have been damaged or most certainly would have been damaged trying to remove the coupler flange. So, I decided to get the job done quickly. I cut the shaft off with a sawzall between the packing gland and the coupler, 15 min. or less and the shaft is out and with the prop in place, all came out past the rudder with out issue. I brought the parts up to my garage and discovered that it would take some ingenuity to get it all apart and cleaned up. The coupler/shaft bolt was frozen in the cast iron coupler, I have been using penitrating oil on it for weeks but still stuck . I was able to split the lock nut off. I applied some heat to the bolt let it cool. It came out with vice grips. The bronze end of the shaft and wedge like key, did not want to pound out of the cast iron either. I made a drive punch for the key and I heated just the bronze with a torch and let it cool. The key and shaft pounded out with out too much effort. The cast iron coupler looks clean at the flange end and a little pitted at the shaft end f rom packing gland drip. I found an industrial wire brush for my 4 1/5" grinder and in minutes it was clean and painted navel gray. Same brush worked on the prop. Questions: Does the shaft simply slide thru the strut/cutless bearing during installation with ease? Should the shaft easily insert into the coupler during installation? Mark