Dripless shaft seals dripping.

My preference - a Johnson Duramax Stuffing Box, commercial grade like the "big boys" use.

http://www.duramaxmarine.com/pdf/Johnsonstuffingbox.pdf


You can get an airseal option to change the packing material without leaking seawater into bilges or having to dry dock.

Is the shaft pitted or worn where the original stuffing box was located?

I just had replaced 2 sets of Tides on 2 different boats last month. occasionally the Tides swell and get stuck on the shaft and spin with it breaking off the water lines and using them much like a weedwacker. The other one, they leaked profusely because the water connection in the tide was blocked with growth.

First off I would have the yard warranty it if it was in the last few months. The shafts should have been cleaned with emory cloth and smooth prior to installation, and they should have been measured and if not the correct diameter, they should've installed a different seal set.

Before you haul the boat or any of that. Half of the time when the Tides leak it is because a small piece of debris had gotten caught between the shaft and seal. Take a .003 feeler gauge and slip it in between the shaft and the lip seal and run it around the shaft several times, this should clear any debris.....most of the time they stop dripping.

If you're going to change them I wouldn't put Tides back. Traditional packing glands with GFO packing would probably be my choice.......Unless you insist on dripless, but I would do Tides. I really liked the dripless system Cabo and Hatteras used(s) but forgot the manufacturer.

I believe Cabo used Blue Water Shaft Seals out of NZ

Vecta Marine - the Kiwi feathering yacht propeller

Built by Chatfield Marine:

http://www.chatfieldmarine.com/shop...s/Blue+Water+Shaft+Seal+-+Standard+Model.html

If the shaft is pitted you could move the shaft seal so that it is riding on a different part of shaft if there is room to move it.

No one seems to have mentioned that the shaft may be (if indeed it is) for a reason - which if left unattended will eventually lead to failure. I am only guessing but is the boat left idle for long periods or in polluted water - google crevice corrosion of stainless steel.

BTW you can have shafts clad - spiral welded and then machined down - but I don't know how cost effective it is for small shafts.

I haven't seen any issue with roundness. But I would be standing there with dial calipers and measure the shaft thickness where the tide seal rides on. If it measures 20 thousands or more thinner than the shaft diameter I'd be having the yard eat the installation for putting them in the same spot on the shaft again. Unforunately to put a longer shaft hose on the shaft tube you have to drop the shafts again. You might be able to shorten the hose on the shaft tube to put the tide seals in a lower location without dropping the shafts, but generally there isn't enough clearance. I'm not a fan of tide seals from my experiences those are the ones I've always had screw up and they do wear the shaft down where the hard eurethane rides on it. Also if they're leaking I'd be on the phone with Tide Seals looking for a concession considering it's been 2 months. You can almost always put the new shaft seal in a different location fore or aft on the shaft if there is a little wear where the tide seal has been riding.

Even being an aluminum hull I would really consider water cooled traditional packing with GFO packing in there and glueing a piece of starboard on the hull to re-direct any drippage so it's no dripping in the same exact spot on the hull, or even glueing a sump underneath it that pumps it over so you have no leakage into the hull if there's clearance for it......Possibly a Rule shower sump box with the lid off of it...... The GFO lasts a very long time, rarely drips, and rarely has to be repacked or even tightened. Shaft alignment can also cause the dripless to leak prematurely.

Curious how you have decided on a PSS Shaft Seal- can you expand what your are looking for in a shaft seal installation or what led you to this decision?

I have never been a huge fan of face seals, have to side with CaptJ on this one

Also, do you have camera's in the engine room that are viewed from the bridge that can give a view of the shaft seals underway?

For a vessel of your size, regardless of which stuffing box you choose, I would expect to have video feed from major areas of potential water ingress - Lazzarette - Rudders, Engine Room - Shaft Log/Main Raw Water Intakes/Exhaust Risers and potentially Bow Thruster Tube Forward.

This does not preclude any physical Engine Room Checks or High Water alarms, just adds another level of safety, especially in running the Pacific Coast in some of those isolated stretches. The cost would be minimal for the benefits offered.

I've run boats with both Tides and PSS seals for thousands of hours each without problems. Of the two, I prefer PSS, especially since the installation is more forgiving. I had a set put on an old aluminum Chris Craft Roamer that had badly worn and pitted shafts. When the installers pointed that out, I told them to put some 3M 101 on the shaft and let's see what happens. They sealed perfectly and survived several trips from San Diego to Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta, and beyond. We had that boat re-plated because of corrosion from standing water, so that's the reason for dripless on that boat. corinthian99 makes a good point about crevice corrosion. One boat I ran had crevice corrosion on the shafts between where the Tides bearing surfaces and seals were. That boat never stood still, and it still developed corrosion. Whichever you use, be sure and maintain the water injection system and run the engines regularly to introduce new water into the area.