Dripless seal leak

Can anyone recommend a boat guru to take a look and give us a second opinion re/ dripless seal leak. Moored @(Elliott Bay Marina).

One of my dripless seals began leaking abruptly and substantially. Luckily, I was there and we have a big auto bilge pump that easily kept pace. I think I know what the issue is, but I am puzzled as to why it would have happened. It looks like the collar keeping the boot compressed slipped, breaking the seal. The boot looks fine – although not new.

I moved the collar and the leak stopped immediately. I would prefer to confirm all was fine before operating again. I think it is, but I am not 100% sure. If you know anybody with experience on older boats I would appreciate a recommendation.

Monkeyfist onsite at Elliott Bay should be able to help you out. I've had them help me with several items on my boat before making the trek to SE Alaska.

Emerald harbor marine are good people too. They have an office next to the harbor master.

Take a picture and post it.

If it is a PSS type, all you might have to do is slip the stainless ring back an inch or so.

Think the PSS boots have a 10 year life suggestion, but many have run them much longer.

I've seen this problem before with a PSS seal and its not the fault of the seal.
The cause is when being fitted there are grub screws which secure the stainless rotor there should be 2 screwed in each threaded hole in the rotor.
The first one is screwed in tight and holds the the rotor tight, another is screwed in on top of the first one to lock it in place.
When you do this check and repair just pull the bellows back a little and with a very soft clean cloth wipe between the carbon face and the rotor face to remove any possible dirt.
The seals are brilliant and I've used them for years with no trouble whatsoever.

PSS has long known about the issue of rotor slippage due to loosening set screws and began offering their Shaft Retention Collar (SRC) as a backup. These SS split shaft collars are commonly available from many industrial suppliers as well.

Thanks everyone. I have what I need. Big help. Irish Rambler - I did not know there might to be two set screws in one hole. That explains why tightening did not stop collar from slipping. Also explains why set screws in other shaft are so deep in the hole. I will add a locking screw to those as well. LarryM - Thanks for point out that we can add a set of suspenders to the existing belt with the addition of the retention collar.

One other comment: PSS set screws are intended to be used only once. Not sure why. Perhaps they are pointed and the points crush upon tightening. We used a large shaft (split) zinc as a retention collar.

Use a shaft zinc for collar retintion

There is quite a bit of info on the Internet about this, but as usual, PBASE has a very good write up, PSS Shaft Seal Installation Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com.

Go down about 2/3 of the page to 09 Mar 04 for some information about the set screws. Course, there is quite a bit of useful information prior to that point.

And as mentioned a bit before I posted, do NOT reuse the set screws.

Later,
Dan

meridian said:

Use a shaft zinc for collar retintion

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That is a great idea!
Sometimes the cheapest, easiest fix is the best.
Thanks!

Pgitug said:

That is a great idea!
Sometimes the cheapest, easiest fix is the best.
Thanks!

Click to expand...

I installed a proper hose clamp behind the collar on my PSS. Belt and suspenders, I guess.

Biggest issue is folks don't know these things require maintenance. Every year or so the tension needs to be checked and reset. The backup for the disk is essential.

I had a PSS start leaking wildly due to a different issue. The prop shaft shifted inside the transmission coupler. It wasn't diimpled to take the setscrews. Bad, bad.