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Your favorite shaft seal system

  • Thread starter Thread starter Reefgeorge
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Reefgeorge

Reefgeorge

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I had replaced my original Australian made shaft seal system in my 2002 Cabo because is was always dripping and slinging a messy goop in a circle around the engine room. I chose the Tides Marine Sure Seal system which almost never drips any water or leaks. The problem is that the system froze to the shaft and I am fighting this problem as I write this (another thread on this site). I have learned that there is only a 0.0075" gap around the shaft to the ID of the assembly and the two have fused together, presumably form scale or marine growth. I have also learned that the system is very sensitive to a loss of proper cooling water flow from the engine hoses and if the system overheats then it causes a total failure due to swelling/warping.

I am considering a new system (maybe even back to old school) and would like to know what your favorite choices are and why?

Thanks,

George
 
Old school. I've never been unable to tighten or repack. Always go with the kiss principal.
 
Boatsb said:
Old school. I've never been unable to tighten or repack. Always go with the kiss principal.
Click to expand...

Ditto, and I have dripless on the Hatt. W L Gore packing which I used on my trawler was super. Clamp a soda bottle around the top where it might sling some water and let it go to the bilge. I put 3300 trouble free hours on the system.

Bobk
 
I used Duramax ultra x 4 yeras ago and it hasn't leaked a drop since. Now that's dripless.
 
Gore/GFO packing.
 
I have PYI's PSS,... or is that the other way around? :confused:

Anyway, 10+ years, no drips that weren't caused by me.

PYI was very helpful when I had technical questions about changing the bellows and cleaning up the seal faces.

As far as I can tell, any of the dripless systems will suffer if they lose the cooling water. Mine was squealing like a rat in a trap once. Not sure if it was the seal or the cutlass, but clearing up the cooling line fixed the problem. I think I'm going to add a crossover to the cooling lines next time I have a chance.
 
Scrod said:
I have PYI's PSS,... or is that the other way around? :confused:

Anyway, 10+ years, no drips that weren't caused by me.

PYI was very helpful when I had technical questions about changing the bellows and cleaning up the seal faces.

As far as I can tell, any of the dripless systems will suffer if they lose the cooling water. Mine was squealing like a rat in a trap once. Not sure if it was the seal or the cutlass, but clearing up the cooling line fixed the problem. I think I'm going to add a crossover to the cooling lines next time I have a chance.
Click to expand...

So your system survived a loss of cooling water? Tides made it sound like a loss of cooling water at running speed on my system would cause a total failure.
 
Last edited:
Reefgeorge said:
So your system survived a loss of cooling water? Tides made it sound like a loss of cooling water at running speed on my system would be a total failure if it happens at running speed.
Click to expand...

All fail with a complete loss of cooling water. If they get some water but not enough they leak and need to be cleaned out. Also they have water pumped into them. If the hose breaks or the barb splits on the carrier your pumping water into the boat.
 
Reefgeorge said:
So your system survived a loss of cooling water? Tides made it sound like a loss of cooling water at running speed on my system would be a total failure if it happens at running speed.
Click to expand...

It did. But let's qualify that with: I didn't run it very long that way, and "past results are not a guarantee of future performance."
 
Gore/GFO and Duramax Ultra appear to be high quality packing material recommendations which is useful but what about the stuffing boxes themselves? What are good choices? If I abandon the current Tides Marine set up I will have nothing but stern tubes.
 
Reefgeorge said:
Gore/GFO and Duramax Ultra appear to be high quality packing material recommendations which is useful but what about the stuffing boxes themselves? What are good choices? If I abandon the current Tides Marine set up I will have nothing but stern tubes.
Click to expand...

Buck Algonquin
 
x2 on Buck-Algonquin. As to type, the gland has the advantage of being able to use smaller tools to service, but you have to have sufficient clearance between the front of the gland and the back of the coupling.
 
I like the spud.
 
Yard used iron bolts on stbd muff coupling. Caused damage. Original packing gland kept leaking despite many attempts to fix. Lost patience and called Hatteras. Use Tides they said. Just went approximately 15 years on the original seals, never had to change, no leaks. Just put in new Tides seals and spares because shafts pulled. I do have the crossover water injection on both engines. Can't complain about a thing.
 
Gore/GFO in conventional packing box.

Major advantage to me is a catastrophic failure won't sink the boat.

DAN
 
drburke said:
Gore/GFO in conventional packing box.

Major advantage to me is a catastrophic failure won't sink the boat.

DAN
Click to expand...

It sounds like there are a lot of success stories out there with Tides but if it seizes, you have major problems (like I am having now). I am starting to head in your direction. Sure slowly leaking stuffing boxes are not as nice day to day and it becomes a routine maintenance item but it seams that you can recover from most problems on top of the water and high grade packing appears to improve all of this.

What stuffing box do you like?
 
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