Dripless Shaft Seals

mintregila

mintregila

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Mar 23, 2004
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Captains,
If you have water cooled dripless shaft seals, be sure to inspect them. I just had one fail and it could have been a sinking event. Now I am on the hard replacing both.
 
They are Tides Marine and are original from 2003.

I am upgrading to another brand that does not have the same failure rate. We are looking at the cause since there is a crossover and it should not have overheated.
 
Mark,
I had that brand on my 34C as well as on my 45C the cool thing about Tides, is you can change the seal without hauling the boat (that is if you have the spare seal on the shaft). On the 34C, it started to leak a little, I did not have a catastrophic failure like you did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFuwnX_moE
 
Walter,

On my boat there is no room on the shaft for a spare.

Shafts coming out tomorrow. Looks like we will replace with an upgraded seal from another manufacturer that uses graphite.

When everything is apart, we will try to determine why it failed other than age. I have the boat 2 years and I have not done any maintenance on them and I doubt there ever was any. Even if water stopped flowing, there is a crossover to the other one so water should not have been a problem. They asked me if I grounded or hit anything as they don't tolerate that well. Only been out twice and the only unusual thing was a nasty breaking wave that caught me by surprise in Jones inlet. Did not ground but props likely came out of the water.

Of course will likely need cutlass bearings etc. so here we go.
 
Mark,
Being your boat is a 2003, I think 13 years for the seal is not so bad. My 2004 34c, started to drip around 2008, I thought at that time that was way premature. The commercial unit at my marina tried to convince me to go with another brand, after googling a ton, just did not see what they were saying to be true. I did have a hard grounding in 2007 0r 8, so maybe that was it. Props were fine, but did need a rudder shaft. Interested to hear the source for the new seal. I have spares on my shaft, did not on the 34c. Stinks that your shaft is so small you can't have a spare! My shaft is very thick and long, Ha Ha, do we get into the gutter now :)

Seriously though, let me know whats up with this new type of seal.

By the way, if your cutlass bearings are bad, that is why your seal went bad. Also, you are sure you don't have a inch or so to put a carrier on with a seal?

Thanks
Walter
 
We switched to another brand and should have stayed with Tides. Lasdrop had us out of the water for a complete replacement.
 
I almost sank last year on the 4th of July from a seal that melted. Luckily I have a friend who had a crash pump and I was able to get back to my slip and get an emergency haul out at midnight or I was done for. Mechanic said hose was clogged full of sand which caused seal to melt. Water was gushing in. Still not comfortable with going out because of this. Was a tides seal and replaced with same which has the extra seal on it if needs replacing.
Al
 
Dave it looks like overkill to me. I don't see the need of the oil, and there is no cooling of the seals areas.
 
This is a very simple setup and it doesn't use any oil it has a canister but you never have to refill it I check it and top it off with transmission fluid but it really doesn't use much if any. I don't have to worry about a hose sinking my boat.
 
But the seals are not cooled which is why they have the hose. Besides, it is a seal failure that sinks the boat not the hose.
 
quote:
Originally posted by boatbum

But the seals are not cooled which is why they have the hose. Besides, it is a seal failure that sinks the boat not the hose.

Click to expand...


I have the Norscot seals, too. The oil (transmission fluid) is what lubricates and keeps the seal cool. I have checked temps while underway for long periods and they stay nice and cool. Very happy with my choice.
 
quote:
Originally posted by boatbum

But the seals are not cooled which is why they have the hose. Besides, it is a seal failure that sinks the boat not the hose.

Click to expand...


They don't need the cooling water.
 
I like Dave's setup because it is not relying on a shared cooling system to cool the shaft seals. With our systems we rely on the salt water that passes through a lot of stuff. Sand, mud, a shell or more likely a zinc (anode) could easily plug up that small hose that cools the conventional dripless shafts.

Mark,
If the seal burnt up, you obviously lost water flow, any similar system would fail the same without water to cool it. If it was just a leak, having a wobble caused by bad cutless bearings would also have the same effect on any seal.

As mentioned, when I had a leak on my 2004 34c, I googled the crap out of this, when the day was done and talking to others that had this setup, I did not replace with another brand, just changed the seals which was very cheap and easy to do. If I saw what Dave posted, I might have went in that direction for a replacement.
 
quote:
Originally posted by boatbum

Dave it looks like overkill to me. I don't see the need of the oil, and there is no cooling of the seals areas.

Click to expand...

Friction it what causes the heat and requires cooling the Transmission fluid reduces the friction and it stays cool so no cooling hoses are needed. Like I had said it is a simple design I don't understand why more boats don't use it.
 
I have goose bumps .... I don't even want to think about this failure .....

Rob
 
Just picked up a 26' center console for FL so will get to boat at least while it is being fixed. Then work on the CC when she is back in the water. I think I need to go back to work.

Also, the seals they want to use are PSS but it looks like they may not fit. Will find out today.
 
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