Dripless Shaft Seal

[Hydraulicjump]

The frequency of having to adjust the drip rate on my packing gland (I may be approaching replacement) has me thinking about replacing it with a dripless shaft seal. I thought I would reach out to the RT cult to ask for guidance from those who have replaced their stuffing box with a dripless shaft seal (not those who ordered one when the boat was built). Some of you may have turned this into a DIY project (it is not that complicated), but for those who had a yard do the work, what was your ballpark cost? I suppose I might replace the cutlass bearing while the shaft is detached from the transmission as well.

Thanks. Any insight welcome.

Jeff

 

[Cutwater28GG]

ive thought about it a lot.
boat needs to be out of the water - I may do it when I next have it painted.

the main challenge is if there is enough room to get it installed.

also, the bilge will never be dry (if that was your goal) because the boat drains from a number of locations to the bilge.

 

[knotflying]

My opinion, keep it simple. If you have to keep tightening it, it is a sign that packing needs to be replaced. How many hours on the packing. My experience is that adjusting the packing on occasion and replacing it after about 7 years of use 1,200 hours, it comes under the list of "not really a pain in the ass to service". To change out to dripless, IMO, is an unwarranted expense. Of course one will always rationalize their choice, so think it through and go with your decision.

 

[Hydraulicjump]

Thanks Mike. As always, both sage and practical advice. And a boat is a grand rationalization, perhaps the ultimate rationalization--built upon pretzel logic--most of us make in a lifetime of purchases.

But economics still constrains most rationalizations, which is why I am casting about. I may ask the skeleton crew at CSR Marine to give me a bid. I will post it when I get it back.

Jeff

 

[Godspeed]

Hi
We put a drip less shaft seal on our 2015 C30 last spring. It was one of the best additions I have ever made to a boat. Like you we were at the end of adjustment of the OEM seal, and I was tired of a wet bilge and spray throughout the engine compartment. I had a local yard do the install, labor and parts were around 750 dollars. Fluid Motion did not make it easy to install this aftermarket item. A special wrench needs to be crafted out of a socket welded to short piece of flat iron to remove one of the bolts from the transmission. The cost to make the tool was about 30 dollars including labor.

If you search this site you will find a few older posts on how to install the shaft log and info about the tool.

I would not hesitate to do it again.

Good luck

 

[BB marine]

A special wrench needs to be crafted out of a socket welded to short piece of flat iron to remove one of the bolts from the transmission. The cost to make the tool was about 30 dollars including labor.

This tool is for the nut that holds the coupling on the shaft. The prop shaft is a double taper. There is a taper fit at the engine side coupling similar to the prop side prop fit. This is where added labor hrs could be experienced. The bigger Rangers and Cutwaters have a bit more room to access the nut but still limited. A socket would need to be cut down to get the clearance needed to remove the nut. Once the nut is removed then the coupling needs to be "popped" removed off the taper. The same way the prop is removed off the taper. The tight installation can make it more difficult. In salt water use I think the dripless makes sense. With packing there is always a small amount of fine mist that is slung off the shaft. A well maintained and adjusted gland can go years without replacement but there is evidence in the compartment of corrosion to metal components from salt water. The dripless can reduce or eliminate this. Fresh water is less damaging. In fact the best way to eliminate the salt water damage in the compartment is to wash the engine compartment down with fresh water to remove the salt deposits periodically and then spray with a protectant coating of your choice. I use CRC products. I would like to have dripless but and would if it wasn't such a tight installation in C26 the same with C28. I also maintain the packing to 2 to 3 DPM when in gear at idle. When at speed I can periodically see a fine mist slinging from the shaft. A small shield keeps this from slinging the spray through out the compartment. I have to agree with Godspeed a worth while investment but I'm sticking with Mikes opinion keeping it simple.

If you are doing the Cutlass most of the labor is redundant so it would be the best time to go with the dripless if you decide to go that direction.

Tight clearance for coupling removal
gallery2.php?g2_itemId=67903

Shield to reduce spray from the shaft
gallery2.php?g2_itemId=70780&g2_imageViewsIndex=1


Motor mounts sprayed with CRC . On a side note the photo shows an area that Fluid Motion needs to step up on QC. The motor mount is not sitting squarely on the engine bed with a portion of the mount hanging over.
gallery2.php?g2_itemId=65701&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

 

[Hydraulicjump]

Thanks for the advice. I pretty regularly wash out the engine compartment, as much as anything to make sure my Johnson bilge sensor is working. As those with newer 29's know it is a pain to reach into the bilge to manually start it up. And this technique "discovered" a burned out pump just last weekend (that's for another post).

Waiting to hear back on what this costs. Can't imagine the boat will ever live in freshwater as long as I own it.

Jeff

 

[SJI Sailor]

For our C30 we got a quote recently for $1190 to install a dripless shaft seal (350 parts and 840 labor). That is not including haul out, and may be discounted slightly by other concurrent work, but should give a sense. We have not yet installed it so the final may vary.

As for why we're planning it, it's because the packing has been impossible to adjust well (I suspect it was far overtightened somehow before delivery and got damaged; just a guess). Maybe new packing would be fine but we thought we'd try the dripless.

 

[REO6205]

I put a dripless shaft seal in my R-21 last year. My boat stays in the water year 'round and not having to worry about salt water in the bilge is great. The R-21's old shaft seal was in an awkward place and tightening it was always a hassle. I traded off running a yard tug for the guys that did the work so my out of pocket costs were 0. If I remember right the parts came to about 250 bucks and the labor would have been about twice that.

 

[NautiTug]

Has anyone actually put a dripless on a c28? I cant find any posts of anyone who actually did.

 

[sjreib]

I recently added a dripless seal to my C30. The Tides brand seemed a better fit than the PSS. My seal was a 1 and 3/4th with a 3 inch stern tube. Part cost about $450. Labor was about $1400. Maybe I paid more than I should, but job was fairly complex because of tight quarters. Very happy not to deal with difficult to control drip rate.
Would like to post picture, but don't know how. You can PM me with email and I'll send you a picture.