Shaft & dripless box -
- Thread starter WhiteNow
- Start date
Can't help you with the seal (don't really need one) but once you get the corrosion cleaned up, try coating everything (except rubber parts) with Fluid Film so small leaks won't cause corrosion.
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Agree with Maine. I grease mine each year with a little dab from a tube from Volvo for that purpose, but I suppose any good Teflon grease could work. If you are still getting some water on the shaft, the rubber boot may need to be replaced.
To grease the shaft seal, I take a small soda straw and insert it between the shaft and seal, then squeeze some grease inside the boot. It doesn't need much.
Worn you launch, you need to "burp" the seal to get water into it. The purpose is to provide some cooling. The tube you are referring to is the inlet (or outlet, depending on how you look at it). The cutlass bearing is the other end of the stream.
What Doug said. Except that I just insert the tip of the grease tube under the lip of the seal while pinching the seal on the sides. Just like the burping action. I do it quickly and only a bit of water comes in. Then I turn the prop shaft by hand to spread around the grease. Takes all of a minute to do.
The life depends on the number of hours and maintenance vs years. I've had 4 B boats over the past 35 years and never had to replace one. The obvious keys are lubrication both grease and water - including burping the seal every time the boat goes in the water (from being on the hard). The straw technique for greasing works great.
I've also found that I need to "re-burp" mid season might be necessary. During heavy summer use I go thru the following: Water will start collecting under the shaft, I'll get all nervous about failing shaft seal and look at replacing the seal, then I'll remember to burp again and that takes care of it. Before every season I do the greasing and burping but funny how I always get worried seeing that cup of water under the shaft.
I've read about the soda straw method but mine does not open up enough to get anything between the lip and the shaft. I burp it every time we use the boat as we keep the boat on a a boat-lift out of the water. I know it's burped because I hear air hissing out then after a few seconds water comes out the bottom, but I just can not get the grease in there.
If you can burp it and water comes out you can insert the straw. Fill up the straw and flatten the straw before inserting.
Thank you so much that worked. I think the key was flattening one end of the straw first.
A west systems epoxy syringe works very well for injecting grease into the Volvo shaft seal. Fill the syringe with marine grease, pinch the seal and insert the syringe end, squirt and rotate the shaft to distribute. I store the syringe next to the seal, a full syringe lasts for years.