Prove or disprove Volvo

[DRS]

Cat with new Volvo 130 sail drives installed 15 months ago. 550 hours on them.
Discovered water in one last week so had the boat pulled for the seal replacement. Shop send these pictures to me showing groves in the prop shafts at the seal location. Volvo rep claims its normal. Anyone out there with similar experience that can confirm or rebuke Volvo's claim?
I would hate to repair only to have another failure after a short time.
I appreciate any thoughts from the group at large.

[River Cruiser]

Without actually having those shafts in my hands the marks do not look bad enough to replace and should hold a seal and Volvo is being truthful. It may be a good idea to check the preload on the bearings, if it was to loose the shaft could wobble a bit and cause the seal to leak.


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[boatbod]

Polished or actually grooved? On high hours shafts it's not unusual to see groves where a seal rides, but not good either. Any more than about 6 thou and you need a new shaft or sleeve it..

[DougR]

From what I can see, I would replace the seals and reassemble. Seals always polish the shaft where the lip rides.
DougR

[Acushla]

This wear looks normal to me, where ever the seal lip runs will always take some polishing/wear and is to be expected. Fit new seals, know what type of seal is being fitted (sprung or unsprung)and that the shaft has some form of lubrication at the seal lip on the rebuild. As the adjacent bearing is a taper roller bearing there should be no radial movement of the shaft when the bearing nut is properly adjusted.

[Lepke]

Get it in writing from the Volvo rep. guaranteeing the seal longevity.

An option would be to have the area hard chromed. It's not cheap, but probably cheaper than buying a part from Volvo. The surface is polished down a few thousands and then hard chromed back to standard size(different material than polished chrome) to produce a very hard, long lasting surface that will probably outlive the engine/drive.
It's a common practice on equipment used in corrosive environments and to rebuild crankshaft bearing surfaces.