Your favourite (or least favourite) shaft seal.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Thanks for the post . I am considering adding a zirc fitting into the bronze tube on the water side. Like this.

https://www.sailboat-cruising.com/cr...ffing-box.html

FWIW, this grease came in a pretty small tub. You smeared the shaft and the insides of the packing with it initially... and that was it for life.

Don't remember the name of the stuff, but it was there on the catalog page right near the teflon packing... and it was in ~1986, so a bit hazy!

Jim

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

FWIW, this grease came in a pretty small tub. You smeared the shaft and the insides of the packing with it initially... and that was it for life.

Don't remember the name of the stuff, but it was there on the catalog page right near the teflon packing... and it was in ~1986, so a bit hazy!

Jim

Thanks for the heads up

[PUDDLE JUMPER II]

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

As few boats today have an actual "tube" that the shaft runs in between the packing gland and the stern bearing, this has fallen into disuse.

With old boats that had such a tube/shaft alley, it was common to fill the tube with either thick grease or pour it full of melted tallow, (like canning wax,) until it squirted out the Cutless bearing.

Done either way the inside packing could run quite loose and still not leak and would last almost forever.

The grease is easier to deal with in most cases.

With grease a Zerk fitting allows giving a pump or two once in a while.

Both ways also keep the "nasties" out of the alley.

Another seagoing feature lost in time, sigh.

Are you advocating tapping a stern tube and putting a zerk fitting on there? I have a PSS shaft seal and I am in the middle of replacing my stern tube w/ G10 tube, and glass it all back in... The benefit of filling the stern tube up with grease is to limit marine growth inside the tube? Or displace sea water?

[Searles]

Fitted a pss supplied by a customer welluver 30 yrs ago it was under the gen set almost impossible to see let alone service ,the yacht an Alden lady Helene class all wood,Mainly Huon pine and Mahogany ,the gen set finally died ,lack of use ,the shaft seal as good as gold,have fitted many since ,pss that is ,a verry good product .

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by PUDDLE JUMPER II

Are you advocating tapping a stern tube and putting a zerk fitting on there? I have a PSS shaft seal and I am in the middle of replacing my stern tube w/ G10 tube, and glass it all back in... The benefit of filling the stern tube up with grease is to limit marine growth inside the tube? Or displace sea water?

To displace seawater but no not the stern tube but the standard type packing gland
https://www.sailboat-cruising.com/cr...ffing-box.html

[chowdan]

I have the PSS Shaft seal as well. Was on the boat before i bought it. Just replaced it with a new one. If i had room id do their pro version i believe its called due to the longer service life, but space on my V drive is just too tight.

Would i continue to use this? Yes, but thats just because I know it. I would be hesitant to switch to anything else just because of lack of knowledge and the fact that I am a V drive and any sort of water flinging around means one thing - my oil pan is going to get wet from salt water and i dont want to deal with that.

[barnakiel]

We have the plain volvo seal. About USD 150 on a 1 inch shaft.



It has been completely dry over last 20 years or so. It does not like when the shaft is not neatly aligned with the tube.


I would buy it again (I did actually).


Over time, it will start to drip. You stop the drip by turning it slightly. It has a life of at least 10 years.



b.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

We have the plain volvo seal. About USD 150 on a 1 inch shaft.



It has been completely dry over last 20 years or so. It does not like when the shaft is not neatly aligned with the tube.


I would buy it again (I did actually).


Over time, it will start to drip. You stop the drip by turning it slightly. It has a life of at least 10 years.



b.

The Volvo seal certainly has my attention now. [emoji106]

[Seaweed827]

Lasdrop Gen 2 dripless seal is my one of choice.
Simple to install, lasts longer than any of the other bellows style.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by newhaul

To displace seawater but no not the stern tube but the standard type packing gland
https://www.sailboat-cruising.com/cr...ffing-box.html

Newhaul, I'd lost track of this thread, but that article link you posted was spot on.
Yep, pump in the grease, it's cheap/easy, and it flat-out works, (all the time forever).
All the contraptions with bellows, carbon rings, water injection, rotating seals, and whatever else comes to mind are just lipstick on a pig.
A devious way to separate sailors from money with claims of "No more water drips".
And none of them do anything to prevent shaft corrosion or growing critters.
And yes, failure/replacement is assured as well as haul-out expenses.

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by Seaweed827

Lasdrop Gen 2 dripless seal is my one of choice.
Simple to install, lasts longer than any of the other bellows style.

My favorite too.

[skipperpete]

I’ve always been indifferent to what shaft seal was fitted as long as it was fulfilling its role and was accessible to be serviced. Since I’ve worked mostly with the flax and grease type I was a bit wary of the early carbon and ceramic dripless seals ( and they definitely have a few major drawbacks) but I warmed to them over time but recently I bought another boat that is a perfect storm of bad design as far as keeping the propshaft from leaking, its so bad that the only way to repack the conventional stern gland is to lift out the engine. There’s 2 mm between the inboard end of the packing nut and the back of the shaft coupling so no hope at all of putting in an extra row of packing and no easy way to even adjust it. The shaft coupling is 10 mm above the bilge and 4 cups of water fills the little bilge well to half way up the coupling. I’m going to rid myself of the old bronze stern gland and fit a Vetus lipseal “all in one “ ( volvo type) to get out of this nightmare, I think its the best choice for my gnarly propshaft/engine setup. I like the 3 lipseal idea and the ability to grease em with a plastic drinking straw but the stumbling block is that vetus only do a 25mm model and my propshaft is 1” (25.4mm), I’m going ahead with the mis matched install but was wondering if anyone else on the forum has done this ?

[Toccata]

My experience:
I have recently replaced a PSS Pro Seal (brand new) with a Tides Marine lip style seal.
Why?
PSS seal 3 1/4 inch tube diam 1 3/4 shaft. The bellows at this size is quite heavy and I had to cant/angle the bellows upwards slightly to allow for droop to try and get the face seals to align. Increasing the pressure on the seal by moving the SS ring "down" the shaft really didn't help and was outside specifications by the time it sealed (ie too much face seal pressure)
The shaft and seal area is quite exposed in my engine room, and with people moving around the engine room it was easy to "kick" the bellows, which allowed water to drip in.
The Tides Marine lip seal has a bush behind (aft of) the lip seal, this keeps the seal accurately aligned with the shaft even if it is accidentally kicked. There is also the ability to store an extra lip seal on the shaft. If the first wears out, the spare can be installed without having to remove the coupling. Note this does mean a positive pressure water supply is required, at a rate of 14l per minute.
My other boat has a traditional stuffing box. 2" shaft which is quite badly pitted. While waiting to metal spray the shaft to fix it, a bit of grease into the nipple stops the drip.
The PSS seal might work on this shaft if I could land the SS ring (and internal O Ring system) on a generally smooth part of the shaft.
The lip seal definitely would not work due to the roughness of the pitting/corrosion on the shaft.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by skipperpete

I’ve always been indifferent to what shaft seal was fitted as long as it was fulfilling its role and was accessible to be serviced. Since I’ve worked mostly with the flax and grease type I was a bit wary of the early carbon and ceramic dripless seals ( and they definitely have a few major drawbacks) but I warmed to them over time but recently I bought another boat that is a perfect storm of bad design as far as keeping the propshaft from leaking, its so bad that the only way to repack the conventional stern gland is to lift out the engine. There’s 2 mm between the inboard end of the packing nut and the back of the shaft coupling so no hope at all of putting in an extra row of packing and no easy way to even adjust it. The shaft coupling is 10 mm above the bilge and 4 cups of water fills the little bilge well to half way up the coupling. I’m going to rid myself of the old bronze stern gland and fit a Vetus lipseal “all in one “ ( volvo type) to get out of this nightmare, I think its the best choice for my gnarly propshaft/engine setup. I like the 3 lipseal idea and the ability to grease em with a plastic drinking straw but the stumbling block is that vetus only do a 25mm model and my propshaft is 1” (25.4mm), I’m going ahead with the mis matched install but was wondering if anyone else on the forum has done this ?

Crikey, what a clusterduck, what were they thinking...

It might be more work than you wanted but you could machine the shaft for a short section to 25mm.

[Rustic Charm]

Just adding my 2 +cents worth.

I replaced a very messy greased traditional packing about six years ago with a PSS. This was on a 25mm shaft. About a year after I’d fitted it I had what I could 9Now describe as a catastrophic failure. I went to leave port under power and a short time later my bilge alarm was screaming. I opened the engine bay to a flood of water �� I turned the engine off and the ingress stopped. To cut it the chase the ‘bellows’ had ceased having enough compression. To be fair to PSS, despite it being out of warranty, PSS sent me a new one out from the USA. I fittied that and five years later it’s still holding well. PSS told me they occasionally have a bad batch of bellows from below par rubber.

The other thing I witnessed with PSS is that a couple years ago I hadn’t used my boat during the winter and the ceramic face had somehow glued or rusted on to the stainless face. When I started the engine this twisted the bellows until it suddenly let go.

These two experiences has left me with the feeling I never want to go with PSS again.

I like the new Lasdrop gen 2 design. I don’t like any lip seals on a shaft as eventually they can damage the shaft. So if I ever go for a ‘Dripless’ again, I think it will be a Lasdrop.

My new glass sloop has a large traditional packing box. Possibly a 40mm size. I’ve decided to give the new generation of packing a go. Duramax ultra sells a Gortex product that has graphite in it. The advertising states this runs cold, doesn’t need to drip and unlikely to damage a shaft. But I can’t get this e pensive product in Australia. Apparently it’s too expensive to stock.

A similar product is GFO packing which is a Gortex product again. Similar specs to Duramax I think. I’ve managed to get a meter of 3/8 for $65 aud. I’m eager to give this a go. But if I’m not happy with the product then I’ll be going with Lasdrop.

I still have my steel ketch with the PSS on it. If I need to change it soon, I’ll be considering Lasdrop for it. If I can get them for 25mm.