Shaft Seals and Cutlass Bearing Life Expectancy

Not a mechanic or expert but a fellow neurotic when it comes to my boat. Based on the pictures I think your Cutlass bearings look good for another season. You are looking for uneven wear so look at the front of the bearing as well. If you see a larger gap at the top of the cutlass that would be an indicator of uneven wear as well. Don’t know how much your shaft is dripping but with packing glands that can be an indicator of misalignment, bent shaft, or strut not being exactly where it needs to be. But if it is just a seal I think i would not bother with pulling the shafts. Looks like you may have to drop the rudders to pull the shafts. I cant remember if the die test can be done to the taper of the shaft in the field. If so, I would “die test” the shaft at the tapers to make sure there is no crack present. Good luck. Looks like a very well cared for boat.

Lift up and down on the propeller and see if there is any play in the shaft (while connected to the engine). But to properly check, You measure the cutlass bearings between the shaft and the bearing at the top and bottom of the shaft with a feeler gauge and there should be a maximum of I think it's .008 but confirm this, on the front and back side of the cutlass bearings. They almost always replace cutlass bearings without dropping the shaft at the yards here. There is a hydraulic press that presses them out with the shaft still in the boat.

I have one boat that cutlass bearings only go 2 years and most others where they go 5+ years. Make sure to grease the lip seals well.

I would imagine the props would have to come out to get the shafts back far enough, but you might get lucky, you only need enough room to slip the seal over the shaft.

It's going to take a good few inches to get the coupler off the shaft. Pending your shaft position to the rudders, center to the rudders or off set, you may have to drop the rudders to drop the shafts back far enough to get the couplers off. The pic looks like long couplers for a tapered shaft.

Have you tried rinsing the seals and contact area of silt and a hardened stain line? Taking them apart and cleaning them up will let water in that your pumps should handle. Handle the seals gently and rinse off with incoming water. Wrap the shaft with wet/dry 1000 paper to clean up the shaft contact area.

If you do replace the seals, install spares on the shaft.

Unfortunately with the Blue Water Seals you cannot put an extra seal on the shaft that was the reason I went with Tides.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot??
You can't put a spare Blue Water Seal on the shaft? Why not?
Thank goodness that I or my customers have not had these issues. This crap (no relation) would have been changed out ASAP.

You could put an extra seal on the shaft but you would not be able to insert it into the blue water housing because it is one round solid piece of steel that slides over the shaft. You have two bolts to remove the piece that houses the seal but you would have no way to slide new seal into it. My description is probably not the best I'll see if I can post a picture and you'll understand.

Thank you for the pic and your description. I understand all now.
I see an engineering fix. I may come up with something after I complete shutting down my shops.
Yep, I'm retiring ,, again..

I think we would like your fix. I have thought of a beveled seal of maybe 60 degrees with a a solid adhesive for the lap. Take a little water, bend it on., glue it, and then sock it home again. No? Uncoupling that shaft every time is a PIA

It looks like Bluewater has a "commercial" seal assembly that carries a spare lip seal.

http://www.chatfieldmarine.com/shop...ue+Water+Shaft+Seal+%96+Commercial+Model.html

Too bad. That seal assembly looked pretty well built. Good luck!

How do you get the intermediary cutlass bearing out and a new one back in with out pulling the shaft? Is there a way to do this with out pulling the shaft?

I don't know. Generally the intermediate bearings go twice as long as the cutlass bearings (near the propeller). It might be possible to press them out, slide them down the propeller shaft and press them through the strut near the propeller, but I don't know on that one. You'd have to ask a yard.

Nearly all cutlass bearings come in two outside diameters per shaft size (if not more). If the builder thought ahead they used the smaller OD bearing in the intermediate strut so it will slide through the aft strut.