I am about to replace the leaking shaft seal on Scimitar. The instrctions say this task must be done out of the water. Haveing just gone back in the water three months ago my question is, is it feasable to carry this out in the water? When carrying out the initial investigation I had the existing boot off to investigate and the water flow was easily manageble. Do the instructions only say this for liability reasons?
thanks,
Craig
Probably. If you reckon the water inflow is manageable and you have a high flow pump on standby, doing it while the boat is afloat is probably a good idea.
I am assuming you are talking about a Crane type seal.
Doing it while afloat will show you if it is working properly straight away after you have buttoned it all up.
It is the sort of job you start early in the day on a day when the shops are open and you have somebody else with you as a "go for" if things don't go quite right.
Just make sure though that your prop shaft/rudder set up is not one where the shaft could slip out the back of the boat if you lose your grip on it.
You should always have a tapered wooden bung of an appropriate size stored near your stern tube anyway.
It might pay to take a swim with a line from one side around the prop and back up the other side.
Thanks guys, pretty much what I was thinking, was planning for a bit of work with the emery and wet and dry on the shaft.
Yes the Avatar is Scimitar a Spencer 45 sirrius.
thanks again,
Craig
Select to expand quote[b]Craig69 said
Weren't wrong about the flange, made a puller out of angle bolted to the flange but the centre bolt sheared so will pick up i high tensile one today and try again.
Hopefully you have a tapered shaft and not a parallel section. Make sure you don't have a through bolt as well.
One way to get it moving is to slide the shaft back far enough to insert an appropriate sized socket on the end of the shaft. Slide it forward again and use some longer bolts to tension it up against the gearbox flange. Should not take to much to pop it off the taper.
