Yanmar SD20 - Spacer Placement

[marty9876]

Hello All,

During this years haul out I discovered my sail drive oil was milky - water in the oil I assumed. For simplicity, I just replaced all the seals (2x shaft, 2x o-ring and then 1x small o-ring on the drain plug) but I kinda goofed putting it all back together in exactly the same - nor do I exactly know if I want to put it all back in the exact same order.

The shaft had some wear from the old seal locations, more visual than I could feel but I've read moving the spacer(s) can be beneficial to allow them to wear on a new location.

I'm not 100% sure where the spacers were but I presume both spacers (CIRCLIP NEEDLE?) were in the middle so to speak between each shaft oil/water seal. I put one each on the outsides so to speak with the net effect of bring then seal in closer together. In all honestly, I put in a spacer, then 2x seals then noticed I had another spacer and getting the seals out w/o damage was a stretch go I dropped it in on the outside of the seal so to speak.

Is this good/bad/right/wrong/indifferent? Attached a few pics of the parts in question.

Many thanks - Marty

[hugosalt]

Changed seals on my SD20 4 years ago.
Had similar wear on shaft, I polished shaft and moved a spacer to outside (aft)
of the water seal. Don't know if this is best practice.
Seems to have worked for me as all good so far.