Dripless shaft seal leaking

[nisckia]

Last year I noticed that the bilge pump was coming on frequently the first few times out. Had the boat in to the mechanic to look at some other stuff and when he did a wet test he saw that the shaft seal was pumping in water when the shaft spun. We were able to use the boat the rest of the season with it doing this as the bilge pump was able pump it out fine plus I kept a close eye on it. I am replacing the steering cable today so I got looking at the shaft seal and was wondering if there is any adjustment that I can do to fix the situation. The mechanic said I must have hit something that damaged the rings but I know I didn't hit anything, no prop damage, all alignments good. Said he needed to remove the shaft and replace everything to fix it, $850 worth. I noticed that there are two set screws on the stainless steel ring. I loosened those and tried to slide the ring down the shaft to create a better seal with the carbon ring as it seems like they are barely touching if in contact at all. Problem is I cannot get the ss ring to move. Is there a trick to getting the ring to move or is it just a tight fit and probably stuck. Also is this going to help at all? Would like to do something while I have access.

[kko]

It would be odd for the stainless ring to be out of adjustment IMPO. It might not move because ther are 4 stainless set screws. First you have to remove one from each hole they are used as locking set screws so that the set screws that lock onto shaft dont back out. make sense..so if you just took out one from each hole there are still one set screw in each hole. I just redid mine a week ago. Search for a thread "Houston we have a problem" to see what I ran up against. If its leaking as bad as you described there is a problem. And yes it will require taking it apart to find and fix whats bad. Mine was a bent strut.Good luck let me know if you have any more ?? I will try and help you.

[kko]

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/show...ouston+problem
here is the link to mine

[nisckia]

Thanks - I will check alignment again in the morning. There is some play in the carbon ring, maybe 1/8" clearance all the way around larger than the shaft. Is that right or should it be tighter? Thanks for the tip on the set screws, they did seem a little short to be contacting the shaft. I think I will adjust it slightly then water test it to see if there is any difference.

Thanks

[TeamAllen]

I remember when I installed mine last year there was something in the instructions about debris possibly getting between the carbon discs causing water intrusion. It said to pull back the disk and let water flush through to clear the debris. Your problem sounds like a deeper problem, but that's all I got. Good luck. Keep us posted.