Spot the... shaft seal!

MapisM

MapisM

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Any idea about the brand/model of this thing?
The original stuffing box was replaced with it, and (as always) the broker has no clue about it...
Fwiw, the shaft is driven by a Cat C15 (850hp) engine.
Thanks in advance!
Shaft%20Seal.jpg
 
Martin_J said:
Deep Sea Seal perhaps.. something like this...

Deep Sea Seal
Click to expand...

Like this ---DSS - water cooled face seal with a retaining ring bolted on
Looks nice n dry on that pic .
Important bit is you want know how they fail -start with a drip or catastrophic sink y boat burst open +gush ?
Suppose it's down to "maintenance "
From memory didn,t that sinking Ferreti of the Baldricks poosible had these ?
http://www.deepseaseals.com/about/
 
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The boat I have just acquired had that seal, it had separated ,the bit on the shaft had come away, it was only the slight pressure that stop it sinking, I fitted a PSS seal,
 
To confirm, thats a Deep Sea Seal. The Alloy or zinc collar on the shaft is not part of the seal assembly, but was fitted by a wise engineer who has seen the seal half slide up the shaft and the water come in!
 
Darn, the dreaded DSS... I feared that.
Well, thanks anyway for your confirmation, folks!

PS: As I recall, also Deleted User had a bad DSS experience. M, if you're reading this, was that on the 53 or the 46? And if the latter, in which year was she built?
 
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MapisM said:
Darn, the dreaded DSS... I feared that.
Well, thanks anyway for your confirmation, folks!

PS: As I recall, also Deleted User had a bad DSS experience. M, if you're reading this, was that on the 53 or the 46? And if the latter, in which year was she built?
Click to expand...

Yes, best replaced with something better such as a Tides at the earliest opportunity. Any seal that needs a backup for when it fails has no place on a boat.
 
MapisM said:
PS: As I recall, also Deleted User had a bad DSS experience. M, if you're reading this, was that on the 53 or the 46? And if the latter, in which year was she built?
Click to expand...

Yup I had a very bad experience on my 2002 Ferretti 53 fitted with these Deep Sea Seals http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?284241-Deep-Sea-Seal-Problem&highlight=deep+sea+seal

As I said in that thread I think the Deep Sea Seal design is just crap because it relies on the friction developed by the hose clamps you see in your pic for the rubber housings to grip the prop shaft and stern tube keeping the faces of the seals together. In my case the clamps and rubber housing had slipped forwards on the shaft allowing the seals to come apart. However I see in your pic that there is an extra clamp on the prop shaft which I presume is there to stop the rubber housing slipping forwards. Very good idea IMHO. Maybe either the manufacturer or the owner has recognised the weakness of the system

Either way its not a big deal as you always have the option to replace the Deep Sea Seals with some other system like the Tides Marine or PSS seals which I think are a much better design. FWIW I fitted the Tides seal after my problem
 
Deleted User said:
However I see in your pic that there is an extra clamp on the prop shaft which I presume is there to stop the rubber housing slipping forwards. Very good idea IMHO.
Click to expand...
Thanks M, also for the link to your old thread. Interesting reading - needless to say, I didn't remember the details...
Just one question, since I haven't seen how the "emergency clip" that you mentioned works: that additional clamp doesn't restrict its use somehow, or does it?
 
When I bought my boat it had DSS, surveyor said they were fine?

You push back the stern part of the seal to then when you release it to spring forward to push back against the split ring part to make the seal.

After a run of several hundred miles got the boat home and lifted her to do stern seals and cutless bearings so drew shafts. The DSS did not spring forward, so pulled it forward, it had lost all elasticity and spring, it was rock solid, so pulled it to its normal Pre compressed length and it split and cracked. Bear in mind this is there to keep the water out!

I have also had problems with other boats withhese seals.

Would I fit them on another boat, no!

Would I ever fit them on my boat, no not in a million years!

The technology was out of date 25 years ago, fit Tides Marine I did and they do what it said on the box, also with a spare shield up the shaft.
 
wizzer said:
I have two new Deep Sea Seals to fit soon and I have looked for a UK supplier of a stainless steel double split shaft collar, with no luck as yet. A phenolic one would also suffice. If anyone knows of a UK supplier, .. heads up please.
Click to expand...

Look carefully at some of the posts here from users of these seals and you may wish to reconsider fitting them to your boat. There are far better alternatives on the market.
 
I have two new Deep Sea Seals to fit soon and I have looked for a UK supplier of a stainless steel double split shaft collar, with no luck as yet. A phenolic one would also suffice. If anyone knows of a UK supplier, .. heads up please.
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?468672-Spot-the-shaft-seal!/page2#WT1gTC6mY4XfhUGy.99
Click to expand...
Not stainless but how about using a shaft anode with the face turned flat, be a cheap fix but sounds like a re-think on seal type is in order.
I was considering changing from stuffing boxes to dripless but now think I will stick to stuffing glands, it's not like it's that hard to deal with them and very cheap to maintain.
 
MapisM said:
Just one question, since I haven't seen how the "emergency clip" that you mentioned works: that additional clamp doesn't restrict its use somehow, or does it?
Click to expand...

You can see the red emergency clip in your picture. Effectively what that does is to clamp the rubber housing that is mounted on the stern tube directly onto the prop shaft (so the seals dont have to work). That is why you are supposed to stop using that engine when you use the emergency clamp (which I didnt do and which could have been catastrophic). I do not see that the additional clamp on the prop shaft will have any effect on the way the emergency clamp works

Seriously the Deep Sea system is a terrible design IMHO. I wouldnt even think of buying a boat with these seals fitted and not changing them for something else.
 
Deleted User said:
Effectively what that does is to clamp the rubber housing that is mounted on the stern tube directly onto the prop shaft
Click to expand...
Doh! Now I understand... and I can see why the shaft spinning could have trashed the whole rubber housing! :ambivalence:
I was guessing that the emergency thing could have been some larger rubber seal, fitted along the shaft but closer to the engine, meant to be slipped above the existing one in case of leak.
But I didn't see anything like that on this boat, hence the doubt about the clamp possibly restricting its usage.

All that said, I perfectly understand all the concerns that were expressed, in principle.
Otoh, this DSS thing was fitted on this boat like you see it above, back in 2010 (allegedly, with zero maintenance since then), and both shafts were both bone dry...
 
Deleted User said:
Yup I had a very bad experience on my 2002 Ferretti 53 fitted with these Deep Sea Seals http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?284241-Deep-Sea-Seal-Problem&highlight=deep+sea+seal

As I said in that thread I think the Deep Sea Seal design is just crap because it relies on the friction developed by the hose clamps you see in your pic for the rubber housings to grip the prop shaft and stern tube keeping the faces of the seals together. In my case the clamps and rubber housing had slipped forwards on the shaft allowing the seals to come apart. However I see in your pic that there is an extra clamp on the prop shaft which I presume is there to stop the rubber housing slipping forwards. Very good idea IMHO. Maybe either the manufacturer or the owner has recognised the weakness of the system

Either way its not a big deal as you always have the option to replace the Deep Sea Seals with some other system like the Tides Marine or PSS seals which I think are a much better design. FWIW I fitted the Tides seal after my problem
Click to expand...

I have also the feared DSSs on my Ferretti. Luckily no issues so far but I'm planning to replace these this winter.

Was the water lubrication system you had on your F53 1/1 compatible Tides Seal system you installed or did you have to make any modifications to this?
 
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