You’re right Josh. The purpose of the vent is to eliminate the need to “burp” the air out of the shaft log when you splash the boat. And since the shaft log is not under pressure, other than the fact that it is a foot or two below the waterline, if the end of the tube is above the heeled water line there should be no water siphoned through it into the bilge.
How do I know this? I had a friend with an older Benneteau that had a “generation 1” PYI seal (no vent tube). His bilge was so dry he put spider spray into the bilge to fight the cobwebs, and I was pretty impressed. When he sold the Benny (which was 15-20 years old with the original seal), he wanted to install a PYI seal in the replacement boat. The new seal was a “generation 2” with vent. He called PYI and they told him that the primary failure mode for the early seals was that owners did not burp them and ensure the log was full of water. The water cools the seal and, I suspect, provides a little lubrication. A PYI seal is on the project list for Imzadi, when I finally need to replace my current packing in a few years. What I have now is a “dripless moldable packing” sold by Western Pacific Trading, Inc. (phone 800-944-3501). The kit has some “Playdough-like” material with Teflon in it, and a lubricating liquid. You put one wrap of conventional packing into the bottom of the stuffing box (to keep the “playdough” from extruding when you tighten the box). Then you roll a hunk of playdough into a string, dip it into the lube, and wrap it around the shaft until the stuffing box is almost full. Top it off with another wrap of packing to stop extrusion, and tighten up the stuffing box until it does not drip. My first installation was in 2004 and it was dripless until a spin halyard went overboard and caused a bent shaft in 2011. When I replaced the shaft I put in new packing on general principals. While the boat was out of the water at the end of 2016 I messed with the prop and replaced the cutlass bearing, and when the boat went back in the water it dripped a bit. Suspect we disturbed the seal when messing with the shaft. Tightened the stuffing box and no more leak. Rick Brass Washington, NC From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Josh Muckley via CnC-List Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2018 1:45 PM To: C&C List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Cc: Josh Muckley muckleyj@gmail.combroke <mailto:muckleyj@gmail.combroke> Subject: Re: Stus-List PSS Shaft Seal I forgot but someone else has mentioned in the past that the vent isn't even really necessary. Just burp the seal after each relaunch. You can eliminate the vent by plugging the hole with a small brass pipe plug. Josh On Feb 16, 2018 9:06 PM, "Brien Sadler via CnC-List" <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > wrote: Has anyone changed to a PSS dripless stuffing box? I’m sold on the switch I just haven’t figured out how I’m going to run the vent line yet. Any suggestions would be great. Preliminary plan is to run it to a very small through hull at the top of the transom. Thanks, Brien Sent from my iPad _______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
_______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
