Volvo Shaft Seal - Recommended Life?

paulrae

paulrae

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When we bought our boat in April the surveyor stated that there are varying opinions on the lifetime of the Volvo rubber shaft seal. Anything from 5-10 years. As the boat's now just over 5 years old, and out of the water, it might be prudent to replace the seal. Has anyone had any firm recommendations from Volvo about the lifetime of the seal?
 
They are fitted to Mobo's and it recommended that they are changed after 200 hours. Never had a problem with them, but must be greased each year and burped after being lifted out.
 
Changed mine last year after 22 years in use with not a single drop leaking into the boat during that time. Only changed in then as part of a major refit during which I replaced the cutless bearing and thought well, as the shafts out .........

As mentioned above, as long as you grease them once a year and 'burp' them after refloating the boat, they'll kast for a long, long time.
 
Volvo recommended life (from a Beneteau 311 manual) is 500 hours; importants points are greasing (take care of the seal's internal lips) and burping.
 
2 in last boat sold after 10yrs still no leak.important to do as others say about lube.and burping.present boat 1100hrs and 5 yrs and still fine.Get the volvo grease put about a cubic cm in a poly bag ,cut the corner about1/2inch off, squeeze the bearing and insert corner of bag 90deg to squeeze push in about an inch and work grease in withdrawing slightly as you do,it doesnt matter if you put too much in. turn prop shaft to spread grease.
 
Volvo Penta says to replace the seal every 500 hours or 5 years, whichever comes first.

A lot of people in this forum has reported much longer usage periods and nobody has reported failures; I have just replaced mine after 6 years and 1100 engine hours, simply as a precaution and it looked in excellent conditions.

Still, a failure of this 150£ piece of rubber may sink your boat: is the risk worth taking? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
A bit dramatic?

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Still, a failure of this 150£ piece of rubber may sink your boat: is the risk worth taking? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
That's maybe a bit dramatic! The Volvo seal is a substantial chunk of hard rubber and I can't imagine any circumstances in which it would fail catastrophically. It's almost certain that a failure would simply show as a persistent drip as the lip seals wear out - unlikely to sink the boat unless it's left unattended for a very long time.
 
We have a volvo shaft seal which is now 15 years old, and still going strong - it has never leaked, and appears to be in good condition.
However while I dont know how many hours of work the engine has done (we never had an hour meter, and we acquired the vessel 9 years ago), I am guessing that the engine has had less than 600 hours of use in the last 15 years.
(We dont need it for battery charging, as we have a solar panel, and the boat lives on a mooring, so we often sail off and on the mooring (or anchor)).
 
Re: A bit dramatic?

A volvo shaft seal can fail fore (problems with the thin internal rubber lips - I experienced it with a defective one some years ago and Beneteau fixed the problem quicky as the boat was brand new) or aft (connexion with the hull-attached shaft exit tube - happened to a friend of mine, the true culprit was the shaft tube). Both cases resulted in 5 to 10 liters per day of seawater, on the wrong side of the hull... not enough to sink but quite a nuisance.
Considering the cost of the piece of rubber, I prefer preventive maintainance, as the quest for a yard with a travelift during a summer cruise has some chance to spoil it...
 
I replaced mine at 12 years and about 1300 hours. It no longer had the nice knife edge but was not leaking. It just seemed silly to not replace it when I had the shaft out. I bought the new one from Keypart.
 
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