Shaft packing seals

[ardeprint]

Does anyone know what seals to use on a 2002 Sundancer 310DA with V drives and twin Mercs 350 MPI MEI?

recomendations welcome...

 

[Jimmy Buoy]

It probably came from the factory with Tides "Strong" seals. Tides http://www.tidesmarine.com/shaft-seals.shtml still makes the seals, but they have improved the design. This is a "lip" seal where the circular seal presses against the prop shaft to keep water below the boat from coming into the ER. The probems with this system is the fact that the prop shaft spins on the seal and it eventually wears enough to leak and must be replaced. On the good side, extra replacement seals can be installed on the shaft for future lip seal replacement needs - all without hauling the boat!

An alternative is a mechanical seal. PSS http://www.shaftseal.com/en/categories is a good product. The main advantage I see is that there isn't the "wear it out/replace it later" issue like the lip seal. The drawback is that if the seal fails, there could much more water coming into your bilge and at a much faster rate than with a lip seal system.

 

[ardeprint]

Thank you!!!

After further research your comments are spot on!