Bad shaft?

[John F.]

So far on Crows Nest, I've emptied and cleaned the boat, took the hard top/pipework off, done oil/filter changes, fuel filter changes, air cleaners, new port motor raw water pump, new ignition switches, and spent about 6 or 8 glorious hours in the bilges cleaning and scraping years of DD oil build-up.

I took her out with a friend today to have him run her so I could check out the motors and stuff with the boxes up. She has PSS dripless shaft seals in her. The port PSS/shaft starts throwing water at about 1500 rpm. It looked to me like the shaft was not running true, causing a wobble. I guess I have her hauled, take the shaft out, have it checked for true and fix or replace? There's a place near here that Doug has used that I can go to.

How much damage can I do running her easy while I sort some other stuff out? Can I rip the PSS apart?

Thanks-

John

[CaptPatrick]

John,

I think my first move would be to check engine alignment and then add a bit more compression to the shaft bellow by adjusting the stationary collar on the shaft back a 1/4"... Did you run the boat from Doug's location?

[John F.]

Capt. Patrick-

Doug had the boat at the marina on the creek I live on, so I idled her home from there. We ran her before I bought her, and she ran up to 3000 rpms and did fine. I can't say that I gave her a great going over, and know I didn't look at the shaft seals with the rpms up. My boat (Anna E.) had regular shafts logs, collars, packing. I'll try to figure out what you said, and then will try to do it. Thanks for the advice. While a lot of stuff is familiar, I feel like I'm learning a whole different boat with different systems.

Are you going to be hanging out at Greenport Saturday?

John

[CaptPatrick]

I'll be there for sure...

Pss Shaft Seals http://www.shaftseal.com/en/about/insta ... haft_seals" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Initial adjustment video will give you the idea on how to adjust a current installation

[Kevin]

If the compression is good make sure the angle of the shaft is true all the way through the tube. It does not take much on part of the bellows to be cock eyed and it will sling water at higher rpms since the graphite and stainless are not evenly compressed. You can fudge it a little by loosening hose clamps and tilting the bellows just a little.

[John F.]

Thanks

[John F.]

No compression at all on the bellows. I set it up per instructions, and will see how that goes. Thanks again.

John

[Navatech]

No compression at all on the bellows.

That will definitely cause the seal to leak... I have used a drop of Locktite to set the locking screws on my setup.