Cabo dripless shaft seals

Hi,

Is the $180 US or NZ Dollars?

If you can get the front plate off which they say can be used in an emergency to hold a packing in place you should be able to wipe the front face of the seal and read the dimensions off it, if not you should be able to measure the bore and shaft accurately enough to go to a bearing shop and see if you can buy the seal on it's own.

I would be surprised if it were a proprietary seal in use by such a small volume manufacturer.

What did you find?

I've bought those seals for a Cabo before and that was the only boat manufacturer I've run across that used that brand. Yes, the seal is $180 and unbelievable in price. I think Cabo switched over to a different brand several years ago.

If the boat is out of the water and the shaft has been dropped, you might want to consider changing the whole dripless out with a PSS or similar.

Like K1W1 wrote, the chances of that being a proprietary seal are so slim as to be not worth considering, if it was it would cost a lot more than $180. Pull the old one and take it to a good hydraulic shop and they will supply you with a $5 replacement.

That is good advice.

Any good hydraulic shop. Many auto parts stores, online Seals-R-Us stores ... they are as common as door dings in a Fort Lauderdale parking lot.

Just pull the old one, look at the numbers, or take it with you to a hydraulic shop.

I see my last post to you has vanished ... make sure you look at the babbit bearing inside that p.o.s. seal and you will probably find it is worn at both ends (hourglass shaped) from the shaft whipping.

The seal is a victim, not the perpetrator, of your problems.

Hi,

I don't see any reference to a bearing within the seal assy.

It is a pity you don't have one of these: http://www.chatfieldmarine.com/shop...ue+Water+Shaft+Seal+%96+Commercial+Model.html

They are able to be opened up and change the seal without pulling the shaft.

Here is a drawing that purports to be the Chatfield "Bluewater" seal assembly.

http://www.southernseasmarine.com/ssm/hardware/items/bw_seal.htm

I figured you might not have the commercial one which is why I wrote It's a pity you don't have one of these before posting the link.

Marmot, You got a better cross section of the seal assy than I found on their website, I must say the www conn on my IPhone isn't very good from the bottom of a 8000 gal black water tank or I would have replied sooner .

I hate those sandblasting inspections with a vengeance.

It isn't your iPhone, Chatfield doesn't provide that drawing on its website. That is why the link goes to another supplier.

The cynical Marmot believes the manufacturer doesn't really want anyone to know what the weak points are.

I don't know but I suspect it would cost more than it's worth to renew the liner. As a matter of opinion, I believe it costs more than it's worth to put a $5 seal in the thing. I believe someone else mentioned that Cabo no longer uses that style. If that is the case, their reasoning is becoming obvious.

Hi,

CSKIPR- If you go the Chatfield Marine website there is a place where you can make an online enquiry.

There is also a phone number that you can call if you can get your timing right.

I think that at the moment if you are GMT -5 in Florida at 1700 local time it will be will be around 1000 the next morning in NZ as NZ is GMT + 12 at the moment.

This means you could call them this afternoon and might find someone there on a Saturday morning.

It looks in that drawing that Marmot found that the white metal brg is only used to hold the seal in a straight line with the shaft, Marmots suggestion that it may be goosed at the ends is a pretty valid one given how it is actually constructed.

Return the seals from where you bought them, drop the shaft and replace the entire assembly with a PSS brand or other.

On another note, if a PSS seal is leaking while the boat is just sitting at the dock, does trying to move the metal donut further down ever stop the water flow, or is the ceramic disk inside usually shot?

If the seal is not setup correctly, yes, that may stop the leaking. There is supposed to be a preload on the seal that is set by moving the rotating collar 3/4" to 1" aft against the stationary seal element. The bellows takes up the compression and supplies the sealing force. If it is set too "loose" it could be the reason for the leak.

If the face of the seal shows any wear or damage applying more compression won't help.

Hi, I'm new here and very glad I found this thread.
I have a Cabo 31 express and I have been trying to find the manufacture of these shaft seals forever. When I first bought this boat 6 years ago used, I bought new seals from Cabo @ $125 ea. After that I found that they are just Walker lip seals and can be had for under $25 on line. I felt like a real sucker.
One seal started leaking again so I considered changing them out for the PYI PSS. However, I checked 2 other Cabo owners in my marina, a 2006 and a 2008 and they both have the Blue Water shaft seals. So I guess Cabo feels these are still the go to seals. I also found out from a local marine mechanic that the cap on top should be filled with grease and tighten down from time to time to keep the seal lubed. If they start to drip just tighten the grease cap a bit.
So I'm going to stay with these seal for now and see how it goes.
Gary