Dripless Shaft seals, or stay with the Old Faithfull

[Kevind767]

Hello everyone,

Am a new member and own a 1983 38' Convertible III

Boat is in yard now and I wish to know whether I should just stay with the old flax seal stuffing box that came with the boat 30 years ago, (and still works quite well).
Or should I bite the bullet to put in the PSS Dripless shaft seal system?

Is there a better product than the PSS?

Any thoughts and experience with any of the above would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Kevin

[randall]

Kevin..i had the PSS and they worked perfectly for the 12 years i had the boat ....BUT ...as a friend of mine once told me..."the enemy of good is better". if its worked fine for 30 years why open that can of worms? unless you are doing a complete running gear refit. my 2 cents.

[IRGuy]

Kevin...

I agree with Randall.. if something works, don't fix it!

I have dripless seals in my B33.. they were there when I bought her. But there are potential drastic consequences with dripless seals if the water supply to them is stopped. The water acts as both a lubricant and coolant.. If it stops the seal faces can get hot enough that the rubber bellows seal can be damaged.. in fact I have heard that a new boat went down a couple of years ago because most likely the dripless seal water was not connected as it should have been and the bellows got so hot they failed, flooding the engine room, and the boat was lost.

[Dug]

I've had dripless in Alchemy for 13 years?

Perfect.

Yes, I changed the rubber boots a couple years ago, and you have to do that every few years. But otherwise they are great!!!!

I might not change for the sake of changing, but if you are doing ANY shaft work, I would not hesitate making the change.

Dug

[Carl]

PYI / PSS I think are the best.
We have been selling them for years and seems to have the least amount of problems plus being priced right.

In my boat I have kept the tried and true flax packing.
A little water in bilge don't bother me like it bothers some and it's one less thing I need to think about, check and maintain.

[Rawleigh]

+1

[Navatech]

Or should I bite the bullet to put in the PSS Dripless shaft seal system?

From what I understand (and I may be wrong on that), "dripless" really means "drip less". IOW, it's not that they run totally dry but rather that they drip (a whole lot) less.

[randall]

mine didn't seem to leak at all...but we're talkin a 25 so a lot less surface area. i kept the bilge bone dry so if it didn't rain and there was water.....i'd investigate. found a few leaky hoses that way.

[Craig G]

My opinion is to just keep the original stuffing boxes because of the easy access to stuff them? My previous boat, a Formula 35 PC with V-drives was impossible to even tighten the stuffing boxes much less re-pack them. I had the dripless seals installed when maintenance was being done on the shafts anyway. They worked fine, and never had to mess with them again, but with the ease of accessibility on my Bertram, I have no intent on going dripless this time.

[Carl]

From what I understand (and I may be wrong on that), "dripless" really means "drip less". IOW, it's not that they run totally dry but rather that they drip (a whole lot) less.

PSS is a non dripping system. IF you have a vibration due to bent shaft, prop, alignment etc yes you may get some water in when running as seal can't seal correctly, a fine mist is emitted around gland. Also if your using an older shaft that had wear at the packing gland...or corrosion...the O-ring may not seal correctly on the shaft and may leak. Usually there's enough wiggle room with bellow to find a clean section of shaft to gain a seal.

[Tony Meola]

Kevin

Get some GFO packing. You can almost get it to be dripless with that stuff. When I repowered, the diesel mechanic talked me out of them. He was right. He said keep it simple. Ever have a problem he asked. I said no. He then said why complicate the situation. If it quits on you 100 miles out you have a problem.

So I still have packing.

[Kevind767]

Guys,

Thanks for all of the replies.

I was replacing the stbd shaft and both of the rubber hoses over the glands while it's in the yard, so I thought why not.

I've had the boat for 19 (will be 20 years this Nov) and have had zero problems with the stuffing glands, so I will just stay with them.

Many thanks for the help and information