Help identify stern gland ? from Turkey.

[olaf hart]

So, a real challenge here.

I recently acquired a boat in Australia, it has a Yanmar 4jh engine and a ZF V drive gearbox.

The gearbox completely obscures the stern gland, so much so that I even tried to identify it with a remote camera wand and couldn’t get a good look at it.

The gearbox was replaced a year ago, and the stern gland was rebuilt and refitted. A couple of days ago I found the guys who did the job, they said they had never seen one like it before.

It has the usual hose attachment to the stern tube, with hose clamps, and the forward end doesn’t have thread or nuts, but it has two internal rubber shaft seals, with grease between them and a remote greasing tube with a grease nipple.

I have talked to a lot of boat mechanics here in Oz, they all draw a blank with a remote grease attachment.

Now the story gets interesting, the boat was built with the usual Perkins 107 and Walter V drive arrangement common in the US. The Yanmar was put in in Turkey around 2006, so we presume this stern gland was sourced somewhere in Europe.

Where better to ask than cruisers forum?

Does this ring any bells?

I am fortunate it was recently refurbed, but getting at it may involve dropping the gearbox out, so I am keen to take good care of it and find some manufacturers instructions if I can.

[olaf hart]

Any ideas?

[DougR]

It sounds something like a Tides Marine shaft seal made in the US, but I think the Tides has only one lip seal, and the Tides uses water injection....

DougR

[olaf hart]

The guys who worked on it said it reminded them of a sure seal, which I think is another name for the tides seal.

Except it used two seals and grease.

Anyway, much more research later I have narrowed it down to an early Vetus seal

Overhaling av pakkboks

And I have also figured out a way to remove it in the future without dropping the v drive gearbox, just remove the prop shaft, cut through the rubber hose, and install it next time on shorter hose.

[olaf hart]

Or if the whole thing becomes a PITA I could just replace it with a Volvo lip seal, I have had good experience with them in the past.