Shaft seal

[gerygarcia]

Just a followup.

I spoke to my mechanic regarding the possiblity of doing this job without removing the engine as Denis' mechanic has done. After all, why spend the money to remove the engine if not needed!

The cause of the leaking to my shaft seal is due to what he thinks is a bent shaft. The retigtening he did last year was only a temporary fix to a problem that had to be addressed eventually. He mentioned the leaking was probably there when I bought the boat 4 yrs ago but was not noticed by the surveyor. Over time the water intrusion caused other damage including corrosion. He will have to replace a number of different parts. He also said he has to remove the shaft to know exactly what is causing the damage (his theory that it's bent and needing machine work). He said to do what he needs to do (properly), the engine must come out.

I will go along with his explanation for the larger job process, and in the end I will
have a drippless seal shaft, which I guess is like a "home improvement" and a worthy investment for the long haul.

Looks like Resolution will be my boat for a long time!
(Unless I win lotto or something!)

Gery Garcia
Resolution......launching 1st or 2nd week of May

[Denis]

Gery
I am sorry, I certainly didn't mean to imply that you should or should not have done work on your boat a certain way. Only the owner knows what needs to be done and why it has to be done a certain way, and no one should second guess what is being done.
I was just so happy that my boat could be fixed that way, I wanted to share my enthusiasm. Denis

[Pitou]

Though many of our boats are similar they are all a little different in their own way.

2 seasons back my dripless shaft seal froze (tides shaft seall) and needed to be replaced and my local mechanic ended up dropping the rudder and pulling the shaft then became a shape shifter and entered the bilge under the engine with v-drive to put on the new shaft seal. How he fit is still beyond me / I think he must do yoga! He replaced with a PSS Shaft Seal (better reviews).

This forum is a terrific exchange of information, but as Denis said all our boats though the same, different situations call for different approaches.

[chiefrcd]

Pitou,
Do you remember how much that cost you? Just a rough idea of the seal and the labor would be helpful.

[Pitou]

I'll pull out the 2005 files this evening and check the bill. As I recall not too bad. For boats that is!

[Pitou]

Chiefrcd,
PSS Shaft Seal $ 340 ......... Labor $ 480

[Jyanzi]

Gery, good luck with your list of projects. It so happens I am meeting a mechanic from Standish boat yard tomorrow morning. He is going to re-pack my shaft seal. I talked with him today and he said he probably worked on my boat when it was made. He worked for Albin for 18 years so of course he is very familiar with the design. I can't wait to see how he gets his body under the engine to work on that seal, but he says he does it all the time.

I was having nightmares wondering how to hire someone to repack the stuffing box. No Mechanic wanted the job. All suggested engine removal. To make it short, we only removed the exhaust muffler and everything else was less difficult. We managed to loosen all nuts took out all the old packing and will be repacking the gland soon.

[Russell]

Use Gore Tex stuffing material and you can have a virtually dripless stuffing box that will last a long time. Not sure where to get it in Singapore but here is a link to the product at West Marine.

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/western- ... 54EALw_wcB

[Nepidae]

Don't know if the first one of these went thru, and if so it was incomplete.
When I went to pack the main shafts on our 43 sundeck my mate said she wanted a dry bilge, no drips, therefore I put in dripless seals. No drips for 6 years, but we still get water in the bilge.
When I went to pack the rudder shafts, which was a project the first time, I asked Steve D'Antonio, a well know boat author who supervises builds of big Nordhavn's for new owners, about the packing suggested. He advised that the graphite could cause electrolysis due to dis-similar metals. I got packing at Defender (https://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?p ... &id=685525) no graphite yet still has goretex.
If you are doing the job yourself don't forget the tool (https://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?p ... &id=685625) to get the old packing out.
Also, packing and tool come in different sizes, get the right size.
The difficulty with the rudder shafts, you didn't forget them did you, they are probably the same age as the shaft seals, is, at least in our boat, something you are working without actually seeing except by mirror so it is backward.
Any questions, drop me an email.