Dripless seal repair cost

[Beaucountry]

Hello all and am looking forward to chatting with everyone. I should take delivery of a 2008 albin 35 command bridge within the next week. The dripless has never been replaced due to it never leaking nor had the cutlass. The cutlass for sure needs to be replaced and I’m going to do a PSS dripless at the same time. I tried to get a quote from the ship yard I used for the haul out on the survey (get a second free haul out) and the guy said it is going to be extensive work to replace the dripless (estimated 2 days of labor) is it really that difficult to replace it on a 35 command bridge. Motor is a cat c7 2.184:1 ZF hydraulic reverse/reduction gear, integral “V” drive 25LH29 4 blade bronze propeller, 2” stainless steel shaft
Tides Marine dripless propeller shaft seal
Am I missing something but the yard said they might have to lift the motor a little to access it

Any info would be great please.

[Ed422]

Hello. I have little to offer other than the fact I picked up my boat from Huntington Harbor last September. Welcome to the world of Albin.

Ed

[Nancy]

Hi Beau - welcome aboard.

Most people in this forum prefer Tides to PSS. The PSS requires bellows replacement every 6-7 years, and the shaft has to be removed to do this. On the Tides, extra shaft seals can be installed above the working seal, and it's relatively easy to remove the bad one and slide a new one in place. Why do you want to change from Tides to PSS?

Are there presently extra collars in place? I'd take the opportunity to slide on some new ones while the shaft is out for the cutless bearing replacement.

I don't know how the engine sits in your boat, but the shaft seal and spares below our Yanmar are visible and accessible. The boat is new to us, but I know that the shaft seal was worked on without lifting the engine.

[Beaucountry]

The shaft has to come out to do the cutlas bearing anyways. But I was just going off the recommended pss pro which they say has about an 8 year shelf life. I’m more concerned about the ship yard saying it was 2 days of work to do a dripless. I can see the dripless from the top so just didn’t understand if it was that difficult to pull the shaft. So basically 16 hours of labor

[Beaucountry]

Basically my question would be this. How many hours of labor is it to do the dripless on a albin? Minus parts what has everyone been charged? Just seems crazy to think it’s 16 hours of labor on a single dripless.

[Ben423]

16 hours sounds reasonable if it includes removing the shaft completely to replace the cutless bearing. If you only want to replace the seal, you can just slide the shaft aft a few inches, which is a simple operation. I recently replaced the Tides seal on my 28TE with a PSS Pro. I've been using PSS seals on both sail and power boats for the past 15 years with zero problems.

[WillieC]

The haul out is free, if I understand the OP.
Is the shaft straight? Has the worn cutless scored it? Any crevice corrosion hidden by the cutless?
Is the shaft log in good condition, no wear from eccentric/misaligned shaft?
Is the engine aligned properly? How are the mounts?
Will the rudder need to be removed?
Are the shaft keyways in good shape? The prop?
Etc.

I'm glad I was able to do all this myself, with excellent assistance from my prop shop.It was about two months of work, which included waiting for a new prop mainly because Michigan Wheel doesn't stock metric bores in my size. I could have used a reducer, but after all this effort? Nah.

Your bigger question is, how does one protect one's self from being ripped off? Boats are money pits, duh, and everybody is in business to keep the doors open. Developing trust with a local yard that is or becomes familiar with your boat is fraught. This fairly simple job may be the beginning of a great relationship. Let us hope so.

[Jkraft]

Another consideration is if the shaft is being removed and the cutlass done, it may require the rudder to be dropped. We had to drop the rudder in the 28 when we did my drive train work

[Nancy]

As I mentioned above, our 35CB is new to us. Our surveyor, Chris Nebel, used to own a 35CB, and he gave me a heads up that changing the cutless bearing is a pain. He said the entire piece has to be removed from the keel, so then the engine has to be aligned. Maybe your yard knows this. It would certainly play into the estimate they gave you.

[jmfernan]

I've replaced a PSS on my 32+2, albeit 1.75" shaft and Yanmar 6LY-ZF V-Drive. Access isn't bad from the rear hatch kneeling in front of rudder post. Didn't need to lift motor but perhaps your access is different. Need to drop rudder- shaft needs to slide way back to get access to end. Drop rudder, pull shaft back, r&r donut and seal, re-pack rudder stuffing, install rudder.

16 hours seems reasonable IF lifting engine and doing alignment is needed. Shaft should be checked for crevice corrosion and straightness while out and good time for cutless bearing.

Welcome to the small group of west coast 32+2/35CB owners, they're great islands boats.
Joe
Santa Barbara