R.W. Behan wrote:
Greetings;

Several years ago we replaced the stuffing box on our Victory Tug with a
packless shaft seal. Since then I've heard of one boat sinking and another
close to it when the stainless rotor loosened, slid forward, and allowed
water to enter the boat. Just today I discovered FAR more salt water in the
bilge than should have been there, and found a lot of splashes around the
packless seal. Evidently it's leaking.

I'm tempted to remove the packless shaft seal and reinstall the stuffing
box, but to use as packing the new hot stuff from the makers of GoreTex.
It is supposed to be so heat resistant you can crank down on the packing
gland until NO water seeps through. You get a dripless seal without all the
fancy mechanical stuff of the packless shaft seal system.

Anybody have comments on this issue?

Thanks,

Dick B.
LNVT "Annie"


Dick,

I use it on my Catalina 30 and love the stuff! I adjusted the packing
gland so it just stops the dripping while at rest (no tighter) and it's
been good ever since. This was in December of 2004. (In my case that was
about 200 hours ago.) The way I adjusted it, it would weep very slightly
(i.e., was visibly moist) when the engine was in gear but would not drip
with the engine stopped. As I said, I've not found it necessary to
readjust so far.

Alan Gomes