Shaft Seals

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Dripless ShaftsealsMy friends think I’m lucky. The cruisers I meet think I’m lucky. My familythinks I’m lucky. They all point a finger and say “You’ve got the best job in theworld!” I admit, spending every summer living aboard my trawler moored at Block Island is a great lifestyle, and being the TowBOAT/US captain stationed over theremeans I’m lucky enough to meet many people and enjoy more than my fair share of incredible sunsets. My luck, however, is fueled by the misfortunes of those unluckyenough to suffer some sort of boating calamity within range of my rescue boat, andfew situations are as tense for my customers as the sudden discovery of water risingin the bilges.Over the past four or five years, I have responded to a surprising number of assistance calls from sinking boats where the subsequent cause of the flooding isdetermined to be the failure of a dripless shaft seal (DSS). The use of these deviceshas become widespread in the past decade, and unlike traditional stuffing boxes,when a DSS fails, the resultant flooding is at least alarming and sometimescatastrophic. My goal here is a review of the ways DSSs may fail, and somesuggestions at to how to prevent failure in the future.There are a number of manufacturers of dripless shaft seals, and thereforethere exists a variety of designs. The subject of this article is limited to two very popular units in use today: the PYI Inc.’s “PSS Shaftseal”, and the Lasdrop “OriginalBellows” model. Both of those DSSs use a flexible bellows attached to the stern tube(or stuffing box collar) to press a fixed carbon/graphite flange against a rotatingstainless steal rotor that spins with the prop shaft, creating a seal between the rotor and flange. Dripless seals have become quite popular for two main reasons: theydon’t require any adjustment after installation, and they continue to keep the seawater out even if the drive train is out of alignment.Before I go any farther, it’s important to mention that both companies make afine product, and if used in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s instruction, bothDSS’s should perform as advertised, and none of the failures I describe here can beattributed to poor design or manufacturing defects. The two brands that appear in this

article not because they are somehow especially problematic, but because together they represent the huge majority of DSSs used in the recreational market, andtherefore they are the ones I see most often. Indeed, I have one of these devices onmy own boat, and it has given me a trouble free, drip free alternative to the constanthassles I had with my old dripping stuffing box.With one exception, all the examples below are from my own personalexperiences as a rescue captain.

Problems related to the movement of the rotor.

The PSS Shaftseal uses four setscrews stacked in two threaded holes to holdthe rotor in place. If the screws loose their grip, the bellows can slowly push the rotor forward. Once the bellows is relaxed, the mechanical seal between rotor and flange islost, and seawater flows into the bilge. This happens more often than you think.According to the manufacturer’s instructions, the setscrews are not to be reused-- anew set of setscrews should be used each time the rotor is installed. I suspect that thisalone is a cause of much of the rotor movement problems I see. How many yard personnel would just assume to re-use the same set screws after removing them to pull a shaft or transmission? I made this mistake on my own vessel, and when Iremoved the setscrews for the second time, the inner screws were surprisingly loose.I’ve also encountered a case when the rotor was missing the second pair of setscrews;I can only speculate that someone not following the installation instructionsinadvertently omitted them.Exacerbating this issue of rotor movement is that the flange and rotor are sowell mated that there is a suction effect between them, and the rotor can actuallystretch the bellows beyond its relaxed position slightly before the seal is broken. Sowhen the bellows finally returns back to its natural, relaxed position, the result leavesa tiny space between the flange and rotor. I have been able to repeat this in the fieldmore than once.One flooding situation I responded to was particularly vexing because it took some sleuthing for me to figure out what had happened. When I arrived on scene, theowner of a 46’ Carver hadn’t even identified the source of the flooding; he only knew

that his pumps weren’t keeping up. What I found was the rotor on the starboard shaftwas about two inches forward of the bellows and flange. Even after I removed thefour setscrews (which were tight) I had to use considerable force to move the rotor back to its proper position. Once the rotor was re-secured, the DSS once againworked fine. So how could the rotor have gotten so far out of place and still be tighton the shaft?The owner denied that he had hit anything, but did say that he had to back down hard to avoid another boat. Could that have been enough to move the shaft inthe transmission coupling? If the shaft was loose in the coupling, then a situation thatcalls for hard reverse could draw the shaft aft, but perhaps not completely out of thecoupling. If the coupling is longer than the DSS bellows travel, then as the shafttravels aft, the collapsed bellows will force the rotor further forward on the shaft.Once the engine is back in forward gear, as power is increased, the shaft could slowlywork its way back into the coupling, but now the rotor moves forward with it. Thissounds like an unusual chain of events, but I was unable to reconcile the situation inany other way.The solution to prevent setscrew related problems is to place a hose clamp onthe prop shaft up against the forward face of the rotor, so that even if the screws comeloose, the hose clamp prevents the rotor from moving away from the flange. I haveseen enough PSS Shaftseal rotors in the wrong place that I implore marine surveyorsto add the extra hose clamp to their recommendations.The Lasdrop uses a “clamp ring assembly” secured with two hose clamps tohold the rotor on the shaft, so there are no setscrews to fail or go missing, but thesame problems related to rotor movement could arise if the hose clamps fail or become loose. To date, I have not encountered a Lasdrop clamp ring assembly thatwas out of place.

Problems Related to the Bellows

The bellows performs two functions; it creates a watertight barrier betweenthe stern tube and the interior of the boat, and it acts like a spring, pushing the flange

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