Change a Dripless Shaft Seal while in the Water?

[carstenb]

Update.............................

Ok so we went at it starting at around 08:30.

12:30 we were finished including the test drive to ensure no leakage.

No major issues, we had planned this in every detail and laid out all the tools we would need

I dove and plugged the area around the shaft seal with bubblewrap and we had no water ingress.

Only major obstacle was that just like everything else on a boat - the working position would make OSHA have a heart attack.

I made a lot of video - I'll condense this and roll it out tomorrow

but- mission accomplished -

Now - where is that second beer?????

[carstenb]

Like I said - I will make a video this evening and post it tomorrow.

Forgot to tell you all the biggest problem involved here was the crocodiles. They do swim around here in the marina/bay

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Like I said - I will make a video this evening and post it tomorrow.

Forgot to tell you all the biggest problem involved here was the crocodiles. They do swim around here in the marina/bay

Marina Ixtapa?

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Marina Ixtapa?

Banana Bay in Golfito

[dlj]

Lookin forward to the video!

dj

[markxengineerin]

Y'all are way too conservative. Even without plugging the gland with anything, water does not come in that quickly through a normal cutlass bearing, easily something a bilge pump can keep up with all day if necessary. With rags stuffed in (from either side), it's a complete non-issue.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by markxengineerin

Y'all are way too conservative. Even without plugging the gland with anything, water does not come in that quickly through a normal cutlass bearing, easily something a bilge pump can keep up with all day if necessary. With rags stuffed in (from either side), it's a complete non-issue.

Changing this shaft seal has nothing to do with a cutlass bearing

[carstenb]

here are the videos

https://youtu.be/jBZWyNGw7ds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OujEKCeaTqs

Now - where's that third beer?

[GILow]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Update.............................

Ok so we went at it starting at around 08:30.

12:30 we were finished including the test drive to ensure no leakage.

No major issues, we had planned this in every detail and laid out all the tools we would need

I dove and plugged the area around the shaft seal with bubblewrap and we had no water ingress.

Only major obstacle was that just like everything else on a boat - the working position would make OSHA have a heart attack.

I made a lot of video - I'll condense this and roll it out tomorrow

but- mission accomplished -

Now - where is that second beer?????

Congratulations on not sinking. I hope you found the second beer ok.

I’m intrigued by the choice of bubble wrap. Is that the current thinking in material choice or just what you had on hand?

[davil]

hi carstenb

congratulations and thank you very much for the videos.

Question

have difficulties with audio at the end when you show the “culprit” inside? the tube?

Can you describe what was wrong?

thank you very much

[markxengineerin]

Changing this shaft seal has nothing to do with a cutlass bearing

After seeing your video, I understand your boat has a strut holding the cutlass bearing. But for many (most?) boats, the cutlass bearing is in the hull and presents a restriction to any water trying to get in when a shaft seal is removed. Either way, I doubt there has ever been a boat that sank because someone tried to replace a shaft seal while still in the water.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by GILow

Congratulations on not sinking. I hope you found the second beer ok.

I’m intrigued by the choice of bubble wrap. Is that the current thinking in material choice or just what you had on hand?

Hell I'm intrigued too!

I started thinking rags, then decided that a rag wrapped in plastic would be even better then looking around for the right kind of plastic saw some bubble wrap. Scrunched together, it seemed perfect. Worked well, almost no water dribbled in

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by davil

hi carstenb

congratulations and thank you very much for the videos.

Question

have difficulties with audio at the end when you show the “culprit” inside? the tube?

Can you describe what was wrong?

thank you very much

I'm assuming the sharp edges of the internal packings simply wore out. They shouldn't have. Normally these last 800-1000 hours of motoring. This one crapped out after only 550.

Difficult to see in the video, but the seal was fully greased. I fill them with grease, every 200 hours or so.
Perhaps just bad quality.

But I am very happy I carry a spare - nowhere to get one within a couple of thousand miles.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by markxengineerin

After seeing your video, I understand your boat has a strut holding the cutlass bearing. But for many (most?) boats, the cutlass bearing is in the hull and presents a restriction to any water trying to get in when a shaft seal is removed. Either way, I doubt there has ever been a boat that sank because someone tried to replace a shaft seal while still in the water.

You're probably right - no boat has sunk doing this.

Although when you are sailing off the coast of central America, where there are few if any resources and your bilge pump starts running every 15-20 minutes and then the interval gets less and less until you get down to 4 minutes or so -

You can trust me on this - the night watches are very long and very anxiety filled.

The damned thing leaked just as much when we were under sail as under engine - so the only thing we could do was march on as fast as we could.

While I've changed the shaft seal while we were on the hard - this is the first time I've tried it while in the water. Couldn't even find a youtube that showed me how and could give me some confidence.

It is one thing that your intelligence is telling you - Hey, there's not a real problem here, just stuff a rag in it, change out the seal
and another when your emotions cringing waiting for the bilge pump to start.


On a happier note - beer has rarely tasted that good

[davil]

Originally Posted by carstenb

I'm assuming the sharp edges of the internal packings simply wore out. They shouldn't have. Normally these last 800-1000 hours of motoring. This one crapped out after only 550.

Difficult to see in the video, but the seal was fully greased. I fill them with grease, every 200 hours or so.
Perhaps just bad quality.

But I am very happy I carry a spare - nowhere to get one within a couple of thousand miles.

================================

thank you very much

I installed a PYI/PSS and have a dripping situation, eventually
resolved but understand the sleepiness nights

incidentally, the PYI is very adamant on not using grease
yours is different.


Do not allow any petroleum-based liquid or corrosive material to come in contact with the PSS. Take care to ensure that this does not occur, for example, when performing general maintenance or winterizing the engine.

https://www.shaftseal.com/pss-instal...tructions.html