Quote:
Originally Posted by rmotoxxx711
When I hear shaft seal or packing I think of a bearing behin a seal. Should I be replacing this seal or just checking and tightening the shaft seal my down? Or repacking any bearings (guessing that the shaft spins freely in that seal and there is no bearing). Thanks again for the help
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not even close. your prop shaft and rudder shaft are sealed with a wax rope packing gland. it's 3 or 4 layers of wax saturated rope, wrapped around the shaft held on by a stuffing/flax nut and a locking nut. it needs water (small amount of seepage from water thru hull) to cool the rope while shaft is turning. it is 100 year old technology that works very well. if repacking, there are newer materials (gore) that can virtually eliminate any dripping. here is a decent tutorial on repacking a stuffing box. it may just need to be tightened a 1/8 of a turn or so. if it bottoms out, you need to restuff the nut with 3 or 4 layers of new wax rope.
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/stuffing_box&page=1
newer boats have dripless packing which basically forces water thru the hull from inside out to prevent any dripping. yours can be retrofitted, but i see very little benefit. repack it with goretex rope if it needs it, inspect it once a year and it should be good to go for many years.