Stern Gland

I would go for Volvo seal. PSS good but if you have single cylinder diesel which shakes you may have problems with shaft hitting seal as I did with Yanmar 1GM10
 
Before launching this year I changed my old stuffing box stern seal for a PSS shaft seal... ( I also have a 1" shaft with a Volvo Penta 2002) Prior to fitting I had the engine alignment profesionally checked.. Replaced the engine mounts and fitted a new cutlass bearing..

On launching I started the engine and the prop shaft was banging against the inside of the stern tube sounding like a bucket of spanners being shaken !

It was so bad I sought advice on this forum (see previous posts) I rang PSS in the USA, and spoke to the UK supplier and 2 marine engineers..

Nobody would say "To solve the problem you need to do A,B & C and that will definatly sort it, " I got many excellent suggestions (including go back to a stuffing box) but no definates, apart from replacing the stern tube with a larger diameter one.

I the end because of the cost and inconvenience of having the boat lifted in & out of the water if the cure did not work I decided to go back to a traditional stuffing box.. Its now running smoothly and quietly, although I do get a few drips of water in the bilge, which i can live with.

My <u>personal</u> opinion is that I still think the PSS Shaft Seal is a great bit of kit (although its very expensive) but you should ensure its suitable for your boat before purchase.

I hope this personal view is helpful.
 
Second the Volvo recommendation. Simple, reliable, long lasting, no moving parts and half the price of alternatives.

What more can one want?
 
I think the other posts sum things up nicely. The PSS has been excellent for me: 1" shaft 1 1/4" ID stern tube, 3 cylinder Beta. (A particularly smooth running engine) Once fitted it requires no attention whatever. Maintenance required by the Volvo has been covered by owners in other posts. In case the search facility lets you down I think it is confined to getting air out of it on launching and grease into it for lubrication.
 
One thing to be wary of with the bellows and carbon bush type pss is the movement of the engine(i have a beta 28) on her mountings when engaging forward or reverse.I found this to be in excess of the 6mm compression recommended by mancour seals,the result was that while in forward at 2/3 throttle the seal opened and sprayed water.If you increase the 6mm to 8or 10 then the compression in reverse is even greater possibly too much.In the end I replaced it with the volvo lip seal.
 
I have just fitted a PSS 25mm shaft.I haven't done many miles yet but it looks well made. I did however have the same problem as Alanpat and had to haul out and fit another cutlass bearing into the inboard end of the stern tube. It seems the old stuffing box provided a lot of support. My shaft was about 2m between coupling and stern gland before.

Martin
 
I preferred the Tides arrangement because it is similar to the Volvo in that it doesn't have a carbon ring forming the seal but because it is attached to the stern tube with bellows they can make it fit a wider range of sizes.

As these things rely on water to lubricate them (only partly so with the Volvo) then having to fit another cutless bearing the stern tube might inhibit the water flow into the seal. A positive water is designed to overcome this problem. The Radice seal is similar to the Volvo but with a water feed.

Measure your stern tube and see what your options are. If you are on a drying mooring then the Volvo will need 'burping' every trip.
 
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