What can cause shaft wear this bad?

[NEpilot]

New boat, new problems.

We knew there was an issue with the shaft and made a deal accordingly. I figured I would just adjust the Tides seal forward on the log and get away with the season but that only made the water coming in worse.

It looked like the seal housing was wobbling. I put an indicator on it just in front of the Tides seal on a clean part of the shaft. Thing was moving 0.024". Ok ok, so either the alignment is really bad or the shaft is bent...

I unbolt the coupler and figure out the alignment is indeed out as the gap stays in the same location as I turn the shaft. Some more climbing around, swearing, and some bruises I have it +/- 0.002. Check the shaft runout again and now we are at 0.004" but still leaking terrible.

With some big trips planned this needs to be addressed. Don't have time to deal with this myself so had the marina haul the boat, pull the wheel, and pull the shaft. Never expected to see such a mess. I have seen worse in the industrial world but never on a boat shaft.

So attached is the photo of shame, clearly, someone already moved the seal once. But my question is can this much wear be caused from an out of alignment situation? What could have happened. Boat has ~1000 hours and a massive folder of receipts from marina doing maintenance its entire lift so I'm a bit puzzled.

-Chris

 

[Carpediem44DB]

Almost looks like bad metallurgy of the shaft to me, that is just an insane amount of wear from a rubber lip-seal, At least you found a clear smoking gun so a new shaft and seals will tkae care of the problem for several years to come.

 

[ZZ13]

Where’s the nice shiny and smooth part that’s on the inside between the coupler and the seal? Almost looks like someone did a pre sale swap with something lying in a junk yard and gave the good one to their buddy for their boat. I’m sure that’s not what happened, though.

 

[my3sons]

Looks like the shaft wore where the seal body bushings ride. Doesn’t make a lot of sense that the shaft would wear that badly where it passes through the seal body bushings. Even if it was fed a steady diet of sandy water, the delrin should wear first and worse. Can’t imagine how badly the seal bushings must be worn, or why someone would allow that to go unchecked. I can’t really see where the lip seal was riding.

 

[Ididntdoit]

I wonder what the other shaft looks like?

 

[NEpilot]

I think I'm going to undue the clamps on the other Tides seal. Should be able to slide it forward enough to see the shaft where the seal sits. If that one looks the same, it will also get changed.

The boat is a 2004 and has the newer Tides seal ( with the 5 screws ) so at some point the shafts have been out.

Hoping for no more whammies!

 

[Nmor830]

Might want to consider replacing all the water lines to the Tides. Just replaced both seals that were only about 4 years old. The strb. side seal burnt and starting leaking pretty good. Pulled it out and found the raw water lines were completely clogged. Decided to just go ahead and replace both sides since it was out. 25.00 worth of rubber hoses cost some big bucks…