Change out dripless shaft seals - need pointers and direction to accomplish this

[Booker]

Hi fellow boaters
I would really like to hear from experience. I believe my'96 Sundancer30 twin 350 V-drives has leaking Tides seals. 850 hours. Am willing to try replacing them with help of a mechanically inclined friend at haul out. What comes off first, props or pins & nuts at the other end? 1 1/4" shafts. What seals are required to replace them? How to determine correct parts? Are PSS the best ones? Can anyone guide me to sources of information to do this step by step, videos etc or am I unrealistic about help options?

There is corrosion/rust at the high point and underside of the current seal fittings, when I have tightened up on the four clamps around the blue coloured silicone cover, the stream of water leaking increased. During last seasons 2week outing, the bilge pumped out maybe a gallon every twenty minutes to half hour.

 

[JimG]

You do not remove the props and shafts... its all done under the engines at the seals. I will be watching this thread for some experienced advice as mine will come do later.

 

[fwebster]

On a 300DA, there is not room to change lip seals under the engine, besides, by now (17 years and 800+hours) the seal housing is worn and should be replaced. That means you do need to have the boat out of the water. You must pull the props off, uncouple the shafts from the engines then pull the shafts out of the couplers and slide then back far enough to remove the seal from the end of the shaft under the engine.

You should order complete new seal kits because Tides has changed their design since your seals were made. The new kit has a better shaft log hose design, the seal housing material is more durable and you can now order the seal with cross-over cooling fittings, which you should do.

Installation should be done by following the instructions that come with the seal very closely. It is very important that you polish the transmission end of the shaft and remove all burrs from the key way and threads so you don't damage the new seal as it is installed. YOu probably have a worn spot where the old seal was riding, so you might have to move the blue hose some on th shaft log or even trim one end to change the seal position so it runs on an unworn spot on the shaft. Depending upon the condition of your shaft, you might find it easier to remove it from the boat to polish it because there is very little room under a 300DA's engines to work in.

Nbody here can tell you with certainty the seal to order because Sea Ray used several different sized shaft logs and shafts in boats. Tides seals are ordered by shaft diameter, shaft tube diameter and exposed shaft length and you will need those dimensions to place your order.

Here is the Tides site and if you click around on it, you will find ordering and installation guides and I think they have a video as well. ........but doing it is going to be more difficult that a "bench" video:

https://www.tidesmarine.com/?page_id=89

Good luck with it...........

 

[gerryb]

I just changed my seals last month (on the hard) as one was leaking. I ended-up removing the shaft as I also had some tunnel fiberglass work to do but on the newer systems this is not always necessary. I'm in agreement with what Frank said, get the boat out of the water, pull the shafts, and install the new Tides system which is really a great design. This will be somewhat of PIA project especially since the new Tides seals require water so you'll have to figure out how best to get fresh water there using a T connect somewhere. I would strongly encourage you to get and extra carrier for a new seal and install that with the new kit. That is assuming you can get to the shaft and work with the spare seal and carrier -as I noted Frank says that is not possible on the 300DA... I let my old ones leak for a whole summer before fixing it. A good mental exercise for my type A perfectionist personality...for me to 'just let it go...' knowing water was coming into the boat... not easy...but as long as the pumps work, you'll be fine.. Call Tides... they have great customer service...