2003 SAN 210 Shaft Seal Leaking

[crghou]

My shaft seal is leaking a lot more than it should be. It has never been touched. From what little information I have been able to find it seems like a good bit of work to do yourself. The local dealer quoted me around 4-6 hours of labor as you have to dissemble a lot to get down to it. My main question is has anyone had experience with having it re-packed? Paid someone or done it yourself on a v-drive? Anyone gone with drip-less? The dealer was recommending that as it is not too much more over re-packing as you still have to dissemble a lot to get to it anyways. Just curious what others have done and maybe an idea of costs? My dealer is quoting me around $800 to go with drip-less. I see parts are around $300 ish.

[charlesml3]

So how much is it leaking? Is it dripping or is it pouring?

-Charles

[crghou]

Pooring, I know it is supposed to have a small drip by design. Probably a few gallons after an hour or so. It wouldn't sink the boat but it is getting to the point that it needs to be addressed. I am also not sure if I could burn or damage anything else by having it leak? Other then ensuring my bilge gets a work out.

[charlesml3]

OK. So have you tried to SLIGHTLY tighten the fitting yet? I say "slightly" because you do NOT want to over-tighten this. Get it too tight and it'll get hot and that can cause a real problem. The only problem with it pouring is your bilge pumps come on every now and then.

Anyway, on that year boat, try tightening the fitting a little. You want it to drip. The drip means it's loose enough not to get hot. If you cannot get it to stop pouring, you'll have to make a decision. Ignore it and let the bilge pumps take care of it or have it repacked.

-Charles

[crghou]

No I guess I should try and do that again. The problem is even getting too it with a wrench is a task.

[obd666]

it can be accessed with the hard tanks still in, but is a helluva lot easier if already converted to sacks. it probably just needs to be tightened some, will need some big mouth wrenches ...

[crghou]

Has anyone had to re-pack theirs already on an 03? Boat only have 400 or so hours on it. Not heavily used by any means.

[Skidave]

You probably need to just tighten. Yours should have safety cable that needs to be loosened. Then back off the thin jam nut. Then tighten the larger piece. Watch the water flow slow to a drip. A few drips a minute is what you want. Tighten the jam nut, put the safety cable back and go ride. I use two big players for mine. I just use them carefully not mash the metal jam nut and larger piece. Get two cheap wrenches @ harbor freight and keep them in the boat.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk

[DW SD]

I just adjusted mine on my 2001 SAN just two months ago. The location sucks. Remove the top cushion of the rear seat. There are three plastic handled nuts retaining the seat. Access them from the engine locker and storage lockers. Spin them off. Then remove the seat back. Also remove the lower rear seat base. In my case, it wasn't even bolted in.

Get your cell phone down there and take a picture under the v-drive gearbox. This will help you orient yourself. Take a look at how many threads are exposed on the gland nut. If quite a few, likely there is remaining packing to re-tighten. If it is cranked down tight, you'll probably need to re-pack.

My boat used to take on several gallons / hour. After, it dripped maybe one drip every 5 to 10 seconds. The gland nut didn't get hot at speed, following, so I know it was adjusted right by those two metrics.

Buy the 2 7/8" gland nut wrenches - ebay has them for $30 each. They are short and aluminum and much easier to get down in to the bilge. I bought the $10 sink nut wrenches from Amazon and those thing are so freakin clunky. They are basically worthless.

Once the jam nut is loose, as suggested above, tighten the gland nut to the point of almost no leak. From there, put one stubby wrench on the gland nut to keep it from changing positions and tighten the jam nut. Then recheck. Not much adjustment of the nut was required to solve my issue. On a clock, I might have gone one position (1/12th of a turn).
The 2003 should be left-hand threaded. So tighter is counter-clockwise if you are staring down the shaft towards the propeller.

Also, note the safety wire. I was able to leave my safety wire attached, but just barely.

I attached a few pictures from my initial exploration. Kind of sucks working blindly, but once you can visualize, you can do it.

Hope that helps,

Doug

[crghou]

Doug, that is very helpful I really appreciate it. 2 questions. How do you remove or loosen the safety wire? I was not able to find the wrenches you were talking about on eBay do you have a link? I found a few that hook up too a 3/4 extension kind of like a crow foot but was not sure that is what I want.

thanks

[DW SD]

Sorry. I wrote 2 7/8" but correct is 1 7/8". I bought only one and should have bought two.

I keep the wrench in the boat to tighten / remove my drain plug. It is getting extra duty.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-7-8-Shaft-...BXnnjS&vxp=mtr

[DW SD]

I didn't need to remove the safety wire. The 1/12th turn or so I did to adjust fit the safety wire without needing to remove.
I did have some .030" stainless MIG wire on hand to replace it.... so I guess it was just Murphy's law. If I didn't have the stainless wire available, the old one wouldn't have worked, for sure!

I adjusted several of these on old Direct Drives and they were MUCH easier as they were all in plain sight... through a porthole in the floor. The v-drive came as quite a surprise when the gland nut was so buried.

Doug

[charlesml3]

I did have some .030" stainless MIG wire on hand to replace it.... so I guess it was just Murphy's law. If I didn't have the stainless wire available, the old one wouldn't have worked, for sure!

You don't have to replace the wire with stainless. I was working on the tiller-arm on my old 99 Air once and ended up using some solid-core copper wire. Anything to hold it that won't rust will do just fine.

-Charles

[crghou]

Thanks I was able to get the wire off was really easy I just had not pulled out the back seat to see what I was dealing with. Will order the wrenches today and report back after they come in. I appreciate the help.

[jbg]

I replaced mine approx. 400hrs, (04 Team) it kept leaking after repacking numerous times. One of my engine mounts worked loose and caused my problems. Once I realigned the motor and shaft and repacked, all good. Most likely not the problem, but always good to check..