Volvo shaft seal question

[Star-Lord]

A new to me yacht - has a Volvo seal - previous owners claimed it was never burped… on the test sail I burped it… we ran the engine and water sprayed out visibly. Running the engine now (a few months later) no water sprays. Thoughts? I’m thinking I should change it.

 

[Tranona]

Have you greased it? Is there a water feed? Burping is not always necessary and you know when it is by the noise of the shaft running on dry bearing. The aft part of the rubber housing is a fluted rubber bearing which is water lubricated. Basically if it is not leaking and does not run hot or make a noise then all is OK

 

[Star-Lord]

Great news. I will grease it. Thx.

 

[Channel Sailor]

If the boat is new to you, why not just change it anyway. Shaft seal sea cocks are kinda of important, so top of my list of Priorities for maintenance. Volvo stay they should be changed every 5 or 6 years (I don’t recall exactly). Sure they can last a lot a lot longer on a nicely aligned, low vibration and smooth good condition prop shaft. if it has never been greased and/or never burped then I would suspect wear would have increased. Mine makes a whining noise if it is not burped, I recall it happening in my first year of ownership. As it wears they appear to start flicking a fine spray of water about that you can usually see. So just an irritation at first. They do not look like they have a catastrophic failure.

 

[ctva]

I changed mine three years ago, not because it was leaking but more because it was more than 20 years old.

Burp regularly (each trip or after drying out) just to be sure and grease annually. They are pretty bomb proof.

Now that I've got an old spare, I'm more happy with it and the engineering / simplicity even to the extent that I would now change it in the water if needed (there are videos on YT of it being done).