Dripless Shafts / Stuffing Box

[savarese1]

Has anyone coverted the old stuffing boxes to a dripless box? if so where you happy with the switch and was it worth the expense? With the limited research i have done it seems parts are at least $2K and then installation???

Any feedback is greatly appeciated

Joe

 

[MVCaprice]

I am also interested in this conversion.

I assume that the shafts need to be pulled to do this so it probably has to be a decent amount of labor. From what I can tell the seal itself is around $500 per shaft plus the relevant tubing to plumb in the cooling water.

PSS seem to be very commonly used dripless seals. I think the type A seals that most of our boats would need are as follows: http://www.shaftseal.com/en/categories/300000001/preview

 

[Cricket]

Been running Tides Marine shaft and rudder seals for at least 20 years, maybe 25.
Had a pair of the "gold standard" 2-3 year old PSS seals where the face delaminated/chipped on both engines that they would not make good on. Btw, they never were run without water, etc..

 

[SEVEN]

The POZ put them on my boat and I love them. Zero water in the bilges.

 

[MVCaprice]

Been running Tides Marine shaft and rudder seals for at least 20 years, maybe 25.
Had a pair of the "gold standard" 2-3 year old PSS seals where the face delaminated/chipped on both engines that they would not make good on. Btw, they never were run without water, etc..

Good to know.

To be clear...I said PSS are the gold standard based on seeing them everywhere (new boats) and not from personal good/bad experience. If there are better ones out there I'm all for it. In any event I updated my post.


I took a look and the Tides Marine shaft seals are about 600 and change per side so they are not as cheap as the PSS. I like how they are ABS/Plastic. Are they 100% plastic? Seems like a nice way to deal with corrosion.

 

[Fanfare]

A now-defunct yard lost the bolts to my stbd muff coupling when I re-engined and replaced these with whatever bolts they had on hand. A year later I dove to check on excessive shaft vibration and found the four outer corner bolts had disintegrated, only the four inner bolts were there. For the next several years I couldn't keep that stuffing box from leaking no matter how I adjusted or tightened. I looked at dripless glands and then called--where else?--Hatteras. They told me they were using the Tides Marine seals on all their boats.

The Tides seals are special "O" rings which are held in a mount. The shaft revolves within this stationary o-ring and is lubricated by cross-fed seawater. At first I was dubious that this could withstand the wear, especially in the sandy Bahamas. The PSS seemed more logical. But after talking to people for a year and more I went with Tides. Nobody seemed to have problems with their seals. The deciding factor was that I could put two replacement seals in a keeper on the shaft and change the seals in the water. It turned out I could have two keepers, for four replacement seals on each shaft. The first original seals lasted me about 15 years with no problems, never replaced. I had to replace my strut Cutless bearings and so decided to change all the seals while the shafts were out.

I read somewhere that PSS recommends changing their hose assemblies every five (?) years. I called Tides to see if I was overdue for changing theirs. They told me their hoses were blue silicone rubber and never needed changing. Mine are now about twenty years old and seem fine. With no spring tension on the seal itself there does not appear to be much strain on the bearing portion of the seal or on the hose. I recommend them. They fixed my problem. Best of all, they don't leak!

 

[krush]

Good to know.

To be clear...I said PSS are the gold standard based on seeing them everywhere (new boats) and not from personal good/bad experience. If there are better ones out there I'm all for it.

Look at this thread from a while back. I started posted info about the various brands of shaft seals. http://www.samsmarine.com/forums/showthread.php?28819-PSS-Shaft-Seals&p=304659#post304659

I suggest you read the entire thread, though.

Tides are lip seal and ride on the shaft and eventually will groove it. I didn't get new seals put on this past winter, but it's on the list for this coming winter. I plan to put two new duramax on. In the thread I give phone number of place to call to get good price. (I think around 360 for the entire assembly and $110 for a new stern tube adapter)

Going back to stuffing box was same or more than replacing the entire shaft seal system.

 

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Have the Tides with spare seals on shafts. They are as stated, perfect.

 

[MVCaprice]

Look at this thread from a while back. I started posted info about the various brands of shaft seals. http://www.samsmarine.com/forums/showthread.php?28819-PSS-Shaft-Seals&p=304659#post304659

I suggest you read the entire thread, though.

Tides are lip seal and ride on the shaft and eventually will groove it. I didn't get new seals put on this past winter, but it's on the list for this coming winter. I plan to put two new duramax on. In the thread I give phone number of place to call to get good price. (I think around 360 for the entire assembly and $110 for a new stern tube adapter)

Going back to stuffing box was same or more than replacing the entire shaft seal system.

Good info. I'll give it a read. I have used the Duramax for rudder seals, but I have heard that it's not ideal for shaft seals due to heat etc. Any feedback on that?

 

[BOATER BOB]

Been running Western Pacific Trading Mouldable Packing for 14 years now I get it at West Marine install it and forget about it it goes in the stuffin box $140 for two large shafts no leaks.
Bob

 

[krush]

Good info. I'll give it a read. I have used the Duramax for rudder seals, but I have heard that it's not ideal for shaft seals due to heat etc. Any feedback on that?

Seems to be working fine on my boat. I did notice the other day a slight mist coming out of it, so I rigged a 1 gal jug around it to keep the splash off everything. On the next run, it looked like it was misting, but not even enough to drip in the bilge...weird. It's old though at least 15 years...maybe 20.

I didn't know they made rudder seals. I figured packing is fine on rudders because it can be tightened down to not leak....never seen rudder seals in person.

 

[Reefgeorge]

Tides works well, keeps a clean bilge. Put spare seals on the shaft. The only issue is that they may not be the best on a boat that doesn't get used much. Health issues have forced inactivity and the housings start to get stuck to the shafts. This is probably the exception. Also, make sure that your cooling water feeds are in good order.

George

 

[jim rosenthal]

I have PSS seals on my Hatteras, and except for one instance in which I didn't keep tension on the bellows on one side, they have worked perfectly. We just changed the bellows out after fifteen years. They are still fine. No complaints.