Dripless Shaft Seal Comments Please

M3Fan wrote: I can speak for the OJ seal, which is the only one I'd buy mainly because it's fairly inexpensive. I had one for 4 summers and really liked it. There is something to be said for having at least 1 thing in the boat that you just plain don't have to worry about. Of course, I still had a wet bilge- water from skiers (after all, we're talking about a WATERSKI boat here and if it's moving, there is somebody behind it who is covered in water) as well as water from the rudder or whatever else. YMMV. Installing a very blunt single-taper driveshaft backward through a very delicate, backward facing double-lip seal is a VERY iffy procedure (HW and CQ- I teed that one up nicely). I tore the first seal I had on installation, then got a replacement which I amazingly installed without tearing. When I did my cutlass bearings this spring, 4 years later, I tore the seal again on re-installation. Each installation attempt was done with the single-taper install tool from OJ. The tolerances are just way too tight and the tool ends up evaporating between the shaft and the inner surface of the seal housing. This time I said to hell with it and put the entire old stuffing box on. Works just fine and I'm happy with it. I'm sure it's easier with a double taper shaft OR with the engine pulled.

I sell and service the OJ seal product and have had great success installing on both double taper and single taper shafts. I dont use the tool that is supplied and utilize tape on the shaft end being installed upon and lots of grease. Have not ruined one yet but keep in mind again we do this for a living and have "all" the tools required.
Personally We run the OJ Seal on our go fast stuff as well as our ski boats, when we do the 25 hour check on the new 200 I will install a new dripless OJ seal.
Down side to the seal is that it does not tolerate mis-alignment well at all and will fail rapidly if a overly mis-aligned situation exist.

I'm very happy with my new PSS seal. It didn't come with the T or tubing though. I installed it from the prop end, but the engine was out. It was definately a timing thing...the engine was out and I had a new shaft that had the coupler trued to the shaft on a lathe. I haven't tried removing a coupler yet and don't want to.

I can speak for the OJ seal, which is the only one I'd buy mainly because it's fairly inexpensive. I had one for 4 summers and really liked it. There is something to be said for having at least 1 thing in the boat that you just plain don't have to worry about.

Of course, I still had a wet bilge- water from skiers (after all, we're talking about a WATERSKI boat here and if it's moving, there is somebody behind it who is covered in water) as well as water from the rudder or whatever else. YMMV.

Installing a very blunt single-taper driveshaft backward through a very delicate, backward facing double-lip seal is a VERY iffy procedure (HW and CQ- I teed that one up nicely). I tore the first seal I had on installation, then got a replacement which I amazingly installed without tearing. When I did my cutlass bearings this spring, 4 years later, I tore the seal again on re-installation. Each installation attempt was done with the single-taper install tool from OJ. The tolerances are just way too tight and the tool ends up evaporating between the shaft and the inner surface of the seal housing. This time I said to hell with it and put the entire old stuffing box on. Works just fine and I'm happy with it. I'm sure it's easier with a double taper shaft OR with the engine pulled.

Jeff,
My opinion is the seal isn't really worth the effort. The exception is if you are doing major drive line R&R when you're removing it all anyway. I've been around enough old boats for so many years that a wet bilge is the norm. I suggest don't go for the "bling" unless needed. The stuffing box and now with the Gortext works big time!!!