Changing Tides seals

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tico

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Anyone have experience of changing these, The older (StrongSeal) type.
The info says it can be done in the water but this petrifies me if it all goes wrong.
How easy is it to get the spiral retainer out? apart from that it seems straightforward.
 
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tico said:
Anyone have experience of changing these, The older (StrongSeal) type.
The info says it can be done in the water but this petrifies me if it all goes wrong.
How easy is it to get the spiral retainer out? apart from that it seems straightforward.
Click to expand...
I agree it is VERY scary.
And I understand your concern

We were cruising in Mallorca when one of ours went.
Managed to make it into Portals where we had someone who knows what he was doing.
I was really only interested in the travel hoist that I could use if it all went tits up.
In fact, it was really easy.
The guy doing it for me cut the old one off and simply slid one of the spares down the shaft until the HUGE volume of water stopped.
I still have one left on that shaft and I would/expecting to use it sometime.
Even though it is my last seal on that shaft, I think I would do it (again somewhere near a travel hoist).
But this time, I would probably do it myself/

That said, I do have a completely spare Tides shaft unit and two new seals "ready to go on".
So if I need a travel hoist, I have the spares on board.

Good luck - is my final comment.
 
Hurricane said:
I agree it is VERY scary.
And I understand your concern

We were cruising in Mallorca when one of ours went.
Managed to make it into Portals where we had someone who knows what he was doing.
I was really only interested in the travel hoist that I could use if it all went tits up.
In fact, it was really easy.
The guy doing it for me cut the old one off and simply slid one of the spares down the shaft until the HUGE volume of water stopped.
I still have one left on that shaft and I would/expecting to use it sometime.
Even though it is my last seal on that shaft, I think I would do it (again somewhere near a travel hoist).
But this time, I would probably do it myself/

That said, I do have a completely spare Tides shaft unit and two new seals "ready to go on".
So if I need a travel hoist, I have the spares on board.

Good luck - is my final comment.
Click to expand...

Was there any tips or special knack you learnt from seeing your engineer remove the old seal from its housing, and then refitting the new seal into the housing, as i believe its quite a tight fitting seal.
 
sharpness said:
Was there any tips or special knack you learnt from seeing your engineer remove the old seal from its housing, and then refitting the new seal into the housing, as i believe its quite a tight fitting seal.
Click to expand...
Not really.
But during the actual operation, water pours in at an alarming rate.
And continues to pour even when the new seal is slid down.
Only stops when the bolts/screws are tightened.
It is a scary operation though.
 
@Hurri.... Thanks for confirming that. Mine are the older type where the seal is held in place by a spiral steel clip. I can see that getting this fitted when kneeling in a cramped space could be er interesting!
Think i'll go for the hoist option
 
I've had to change Tide seals on my last two boats, including changing the whole seal assemblies on both shafts on my current boat after only 3 years to stop persistent leaks that weren't fixed by changing the replaceable rubber seal. As Hurricane says, if you try to change the seal while in the water, water comes in at a frightening rate, under quite high pressure and continues until all the fastenings are fully tightened. Unless its an emergency, its not something I think you should attempt for the first time on your own. Once you've done it, or at least seen it done, it's a little less intimidating.

On my current boat, I was experiencing slow drips from both seals on an intermittent basis and only when the boat was in motion. We first attempted to solve this by swapping the rubber seals with a spare. However, neither Sunseeker maintenance engineers or the local shipyard would agree to do this with the boat in the water because they did not consider it an "emergency" situation. Both recommended waiting until the next lift, even though this was months away. I think this tells you all you need to know about how advisable it is to start replacing seals while in the water unless it's an emergency or dangerous situation.

You always need to have at least one spare seal on each shaft for emergencies, so if you only have one at the moment you should not use this without arranging a lift to add more.
 
Hi DAW - What was the problem in the end?... mine only seems to leak when the shaft is turning, but the amount is beyond what I would consider OK.
Lift booked for Tuesday! 'll post how I get on
 
tico said:
Hi DAW - What was the problem in the end?... mine only seems to leak when the shaft is turning, but the amount is beyond what I would consider OK.
Lift booked for Tuesday! 'll post how I get on
Click to expand...

The autopsy was not particularly conclusive.

I had a fairly persistent leak on the port side, which usually resulted in a litre or two of water in the bilge after a few hours of use. The leak on the starboard side was more intermittent and usually with much less water ingress. When the boat was stationary there was nothing from the starboard side. The port side was always a little damp and with some salt residue, but not enough water to call it a leak. During the 2021 lift out we inspected everything but couldn't find anything wrong and decided to try just refitting, tightening everything and changing the rubber seals for two of the spares. That didn't fix the problem so this year we decided to drop the shafts and replace both seal assemblies.

On closer inspection, the one from the port side had a very small crack in the housing. The company that did the work said it was either a manufacturing fault or possible that it could have been damaged on installation. The starboard one had no visible defects, so its still a mystery.

After a couple of weeks of use, I still have completely dry bilges and I'm back up to the full complement of spare seals on the shafts, so happy with the decision to do the work.
 
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