Dripless shaft seal leaking

[Fman]

Does Malibu use the OJ XPC or the PSS seal? I have never had a problem or even looked at mine. On our '01 Tige it had the PSS seal and did develop a small leak. I called PPS and they had me to slide the SS collar down just a touch to put more pressure on the rubber bellows. That adjustment stopped the leak and it had been running 6 seasons. it did not have the external cooling hose like the ones today.

Pretty sure its the OJ XPC, its red and white, I am going to call Eric at OJ tuesday and see what he recommends.... I did notice the clamp on the cooling line was loose, could move it with my fingers.... not sure if this is where the water was coming from, how cool would that be to have it be that easy ..... and my dealer today tells me that it might not be covered under warranty, the boat is not even 5 months old.... she was going to check next week after the holiday. I hope she is wrong, I cant see them not replacing it for me.

[Fman]

Does Malibu use the OJ XPC or the PSS seal? I have never had a problem or even looked at mine. On our '01 Tige it had the PSS seal and did develop a small leak. I called PPS and they had me to slide the SS collar down just a touch to put more pressure on the rubber bellows. That adjustment stopped the leak and it had been running 6 seasons. it did not have the external cooling hose like the ones today.

I wonder sometimes if people dont pay attention to them, they just assume there is always water in the bilge area. I just started noticing a little more than normal recently, thats what triggered me to take a peek at it on the lake yesterday, and it was obvious there was water dripping from it.

[TallRedRider]

PPS Shaft Seal

Mine does not look like that unless I am looking at the wrong part. Is that weird?

Edited September 3, 2011 by TallRedRider

[shawndoggy]

Mine does not look like that unless I am looking at the wrong part. Is that weird?

dumb question but are you sure yours IS dripless and not the old-school packing nut?

[Dexter]

Pretty sure its the OJ XPC, its red and white, I am going to call Eric at OJ tuesday and see what he recommends.... I did notice the clamp on the cooling line was loose, could move it with my fingers.... not sure if this is where the water was coming from, how cool would that be to have it be that easy ..... and my dealer today tells me that it might not be covered under warranty, the boat is not even 5 months old.... she was going to check next week after the holiday. I hope she is wrong, I cant see them not replacing it for me.

That would be my guess. I found mine loose while winterizing last year. Although, I had a hell of a time removing the hose off the barbed fitting

Edited September 3, 2011 by Dexter

[TallRedRider]

dumb question but are you sure yours IS dripless and not the old-school packing nut?

I am not sure...this is the best pic I have right now...maybe someone can tell from this? I think I need to point the camer further down the shaft to see it more precisely, but this is all I got until I can get a minute to get out there.

[NorCaliBu]

I am not sure...this is the best pic I have right now...maybe someone can tell from this?

That is not a dripless. That is an old school packing gland. Should have 1 drip ~ every 10 seconds. If your rate is faster than that, loosen the jam nut (locking nut) tighten the adjusting nut a little and then retighten the jam nut.

[fixyourboat]

This picture is not a water cooled or dripless shaft seal assy. This is a Marine Hardware shaft log assy. built for and used by almost all inboards for many years. It is the flax packing style that is adjusted by loosening the jam or locking nut and tightening or loosening the large packing nut.

Towing is not supposed to be a problem and I agree that it doesn't cause them to heat up, but if the alignment, or installation of the assy. Is not straight, or before the towing there was a problem with cooling set up, or....... If it were slightly damaged earlier then towing would compound the problem as the previous damage isn't allowing enough lake water to surround the shaft bushing, nor is there any engine coolant coming through it either, and the friction is .causing it to heat up and melt.

I like the new water cooled log assy. We have used them on our hydroplanes for years. The problem is the installation, or the plumbing, or the shaft alignment. I really do think with these assys. they news to be inspect at the dealership before delivery for PROPER install and that it is working they way it was designed to work. And it needs to be checked not just a visual each time the boat is serviced.

Also before we started building these huge boats w massive amounts of weight to be carried, shaft alignment on a Malibu rarely had to be adjusted from normal use because of the "fibecs" system and the use of .good engine mounts and when the factory had great riggers that knew how important and how to properly align an engine to the shaft.

What I am seeing is these bigger boats and ones that are trailered long distances or rough roads etc. The huge torque we are putting on drive packages and shaft lines, struts, bearings, and so on.

Huge boat, lots of gear, BALLAST BALLAST BALLAST, lots of friends and family, tons of beer. Add that to BIG engine power and torque more than ever dreamed of a tra years ago. These boats ARE NOT going to going to get away without adjustments anymore. I promise you that the shaft line is being put to the test. But .like anything else, maintain it routinely and it will be great.

Just since this thread got circulating people are now really looking at these things and not just a visual. This does not work .like the .old PSS system. And I can't stress enough with new boat buyers, Make the dealer take u to the lake w the boat regardless of your experience as a boater or what ever. A pre delivery cruise these days should almost be a requirement! Especially now we have broken the 100k mark. I'm not trying to bash the dealers here, but I feel that some of them think that they are paying top dollar for a top boat that is lake tested at the factory and it had better be perfect or else. Those guys are the one we read about here, where 90% of the issues with the boat could have been easily dealt w at the dealer BEFORE it was sold. There are way to many systems on a wake building boat to think it isn't going to have something not working up to speed right out of the shipping cover.

Ok enough from me, now the experts can chime in and agree or dis agree if they haven't fallen asleep reading this.

[TallRedRider]

That is not a dripless. That is an old school packing gland. Should have 1 drip ~ every 10 seconds. If your rate is faster than that, loosen the jam nut (locking nut) tighten the adjusting nut a little and then retighten the jam nut.

Thanks! I hate the thought of something 'old school' on my boat...Haha. I will give it a try.

[Fman]

Couple of concerns I have...

I am pretty sure my dealer did not re-check prop shaft alignment with a feeler gauge, I will confirm this when I take the boat in this fall. My 20 hr service was included in the purchase, so I did not pay them anything for it (hoping I am mistaken and they did check alignment).

I also heard that if the cooling line is ran off the exhaust manifold it will be pushing hot water (165 degrees) into the seal unit which can expand the seal and cause it to start leaking. I was told if the seal leaks immediately after starting the boat, its probably toasted... if it takes a few minutes to start leaking then it is probably because of hot water being forced into the seal unit. I have not confirmed how mine is routed, I am at work until monday. I am going to check this, apparently if they did run it off this, it needs to be relocated to a location where cool water will be running into the seal unit. This makes sense, I am assuming Malibu would install it correctly, but Monday I will take a better look at where the line is coming from.

Anyone else with a dripless shaft seal with a 2010/11 know how they routed the cooling line from factory at malibu?

Edited September 4, 2011 by Fman

[fixyourboat]

Typically they plumb the coolant hose which is a clear vinyl tubing from the transmission cooler to the .log. Engine model? The 6.0l and the LSA have different plumbing.

[Pistol Pete]

Anyone have any links to threads about replacing or repairing the prop shaft seal?

My link

[bamabonners]

I wonder sometimes if people dont pay attention to them, they just assume there is always water in the bilge area. I just started noticing a little more than normal recently, thats what triggered me to take a peek at it on the lake yesterday, and it was obvious there was water dripping from it.

I am going to check mine as well. I have been having some mystery water coming in as well. I just wrote it off as water that didn't drain out from the previous weekend.

[water_junky]

Wow... that's crazy, maybe because we don't do a whole lot of house boating in our area we don't see that. Bummer to hear it ruined a trip on Powell.

What can you do to avoid it from spinning when being towed? the only thin i can think of is blocking the prop with something but man that would suck if you started up the boat and forgot that in there!

-Paul

Paul,

I made a clamp from a wrench and a vise grip clamp that clamps onto one of the coupler bolts and made a base from poly board that is glued to the bottom of the boat that the clamp rests against when the prop tries to spin. To make sure that the boat won't start with the clamp in place my lanyard is attached to it.

It was pretty simple really. If anyone is interested send me a pm and I'll send pictures.

Terry

[TallRedRider]

My link

Pete,

That has to be the greatest tutorial ever. My hat is off to you. Thanks!

My first step is to dig my head in the engine compartment when the boat is in gear and make sure that I am getting my leak from the seal instead of some other part.

[Dexter]

Typically they plumb the coolant hose which is a clear vinyl tubing from the transmission cooler to the .log. Engine model? The 6.0l and the LSA have different plumbing.

Yep, intake of the tranny cooler to the shaft seal to the lake. Mine is a '10 with the monsoon. I'd also bet at least a couple of your locknuts on the shaft coupling are loose. I love my boat, but I don't trust everything done at the factory.

[FIC]

What we have seen at our dealership is , on the Malibu and MC dripless system is the double lip seal in the plastiic housing actually wears down the stainless steel prop shaft and you can put new seals in but it wont stop the leak , you can check this by pulling the assembly up the shaft and see the grooves where the seals rode, if this is the case you have two options , replace the shaft or do as we have done and switch to the PYI PSS system , which is a bellows with a ceramiic disc and a stainless compression ring, no seal riding on the shaft.

We have found the main culprit to the seal failures has been backing off of a beach blowing debree into the shaft seal area or any kind of debree getting in while reversing.

[Pistol Pete]

Pete,

That has to be the greatest tutorial ever. My hat is off to you. Thanks!

I believe Bill Air Junky hooked us up with that article. I just happen to save the thread in my "personal stash".

Jeeze,

With all these problems I'm hearing about shaft cooling, I think today while I'm working on my boat I'm gonna go down and kiss my old skool shaft packing.

[fixyourboat]

The shaft log is like anything else on the boat that requires inspection and maintenance.

Recently I brought up this subject w the powers that BU when I had a complete assy metled. I again brought up the way the 6.0l is plumbed and basically I was told that there are thousands of them out that have no problem at all. (sound familiar?) Well I think we proved again right here that there are more problems with it than what we were led to believe. It's basic owners, techs, sales people, etc. have not really been looking and or testing these new assys because we were told they could run 1000hrs dry then 600 then Malibu went through its change of management ownership and so on that nothing was consistent and different engine packages reared changes. Sometimes those things are not shared w the dealers until wow when dis we start sound it that way? It seems the new production teams there for a while '(not now so I'm told) made their own changes and didn't share them much less rest them.

I really can't stand that we have done thousands of boats and never had a problem. Well gi take a look and I'm sure .I .will find one.

[Fman]

What we have seen at our dealership is , on the Malibu and MC dripless system is the double lip seal in the plastiic housing actually wears down the stainless steel prop shaft and you can put new seals in but it wont stop the leak , you can check this by pulling the assembly up the shaft and see the grooves where the seals rode, if this is the case you have two options , replace the shaft or do as we have done and switch to the PYI PSS system , which is a bellows with a ceramiic disc and a stainless compression ring, no seal riding on the shaft.

We have found the main culprit to the seal failures has been backing off of a beach blowing debree into the shaft seal area or any kind of debree getting in while reversing.

Never have beached my boat or been close to a sandy beach, seems kind of strange reversing the boat would throw debris in the seal area, especially when water is being forced out of it. At this point I am going to leave it up to my dealer to figure out what the cause is.

[TallRedRider]

FWIW, I was out on my buddy's 2007 247 today. I checked his prop shaft seal and he has a dripless type with a hose going to it. So it would appear that 2006's have the old style gland and the 2007's and up have the dripless water fed seal.

[85 Barefoot]

FWIW, I was out on my buddy's 2007 247 today. I checked his prop shaft seal and he has a dripless type with a hose going to it. So it would appear that 2006's have the old style gland and the 2007's and up have the dripless water fed seal.

The dripless used to be, and may still be an option. Most dealers, like mine, just order all their boats with it.

[thtrog]

The dripless used to be, and may still be an option. Most dealers, like mine, just order all their boats with it.

Your correct it's still optional...last year it was a $80 upgrade.

[Fman]

I did pay extra for the dripless shaft seal when I ordered the boat...

Contacted Eric at OJ props yesterday, he said the seals do fail at times prematurely, but usually it is because of improper shaft alignment from the factory or they also can be installed damaged at the factory. They have a boat with 1900 hours on a seal and still not leaking. I confirmed it is the cool water line that is feeding the seal, so the hot water issue does not apply to my seal. I have been able to still use the boat, leak has not gotten any worse, so I will ride into the fall and let my dealer take care of it.

Edited September 8, 2011 by Fman

[lucas]

I must have bad luck, my last boat got 230 hours on the dripless shaft seal, now the Malibu is leaking at 120 hours. Has anyone else experienced this? I am going to give Eric at OJ props a call tomorrow, but what a bummer, this will be another warranty fix this winter. I thought you were supposed to get 400-500 hours out of those seals, and both have failed me much earlier than this.

Is there anything I should do to possibly fix this? look for? The water is dripping from the bottom side of the seal, right where the shaft meats the white collar. Pretty sure there is not much I can do about it other than have it replaced... I still can take the boat out, just more water than normal in the Bilge area.

Is the OJ shaft seal works now?