Stern Tube Leaking...Help

[Nancy Martin]

We have spent the last 3 weeks working on boat. Splashed the boat this morning and water started coming thru stern tube in 1/4" stream. We replace the shaft, cutlass bearing and installed dripless seal.

Needless to say we had to haul boat back on the hard.

Any advise to assist with stern tube leak? we think it might have cracked while in yard.

Nancy & John
CD31, Hull #85[/b]

[Jacko]

If a Sawzall was used to remove the old cutlass bearing, the shaft log might have been perferated. You'll have to remove the shaft and feather in a West System / microballoon paste patch to repair it. Been there, done that.

[Bill Goldsmith]

Nancy & John,

The first and most important task is to identify exactly where the leak is. Can you tell whether the leak is a crack or hole in the stern tube itself, in the fiberglass filler surrounding the tube, or somehow related to the new shaftseal?

If it is in the tube itself, or in the filler surrounding the tube, and if it were my boat, I'd take this opportunity to replace the entire shaft log with a good bronze log. Not only is it a superior, more "Cape Dory-like" installation, but it will make the installation of cutless bearings "bearable" in the future.

If (when) the glass log on Loonsong ever leaks, that's what I will do.

Bill Goldsmith

[Zeida Cecilia-Mendez]

Nancy, if I remember correctly you guys just changed to a dry PSY seal to replace the regular bronze stuff box, installed a new cutless bearing and a new ss prop shaft. If the yard who did this work damaged or cracked the hull, they must fix it at their expense. Hold them accountable and fight for your rights. Maybe the install did not turn out correct. This is a very critical part and it will not only result on a leaking hull, but a misaligned engine as well. When the yard starts working on this once more, make sure one of you is always present to see and understand what is being done. I had a bad experience with my 33, and made them fix it, and the repair worked out fine, but I was there 100% of the time. You must learn what can go wrong, or right with your equipment. You need to know. I hope this can be fixed asap.

[Zeida Cecilia-Mendez]

Nancy, FYI, my CD-33 does not have a fiberglass shaft log. Instead I have the regular bronze stuff box, that connects to the stern tube with a thick rubber hose. The cutless bearing is inside the stern tube. When at the yard, they used 5200 to seal the stern tube, and then found out they could not align the prop shaft. When trying to remove the stern tube, of course, they couldn't because of the 5200 and had to CUT a hole in the hull to tear the stern tube out. Imagine my distress. But I made them fix it. The repair turned out very satisfactory, and in the end I made them seal the stern tube and the hose with BoatLife polysulfide.
[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sra ... 179649.jpg[/img]
Stern tube with the new cutless bearing sticking out from the end, and bronze stuff box
[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sra ... 1795dc.jpg[/img]
stern tube with the new hose that goes through the hull
[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sra ... 179654.jpg[/img]
Yard Mistake: they had to cut the hull to remove the stern tube
[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sra ... 178c0e.jpg[/img]
Stern Tube in place and hull now repaired - better than new.

[johnny of STORK]

Zeida -- Where did you get that stern tube? I'm looking at doing some of this, and haven't seen one like yours. Thanks,
Johnny of STORK

[Al Levesque]

The stern tube on our CD33 is similar to Zeida's. I don't know if it was original with the CD33 because I don't see that style in the Spartan catalog. Sometime back when we had some shaft work done the yard did not like the short length and had additional length welded on. This reduces the space between the stuff box and the shaft coupling but it makes it easier to attach the hose with the fitting in place.

[Guest]

I don't know if it was original with the CD33 because I don't see that style in the Spartan catalog.

I think the top picture on the attached PDF file is the one Zeida used:

http://www.buckalgonquin.com/Buck_Algon ... age_74.pdf

When I was looking to get into a bigger CD I looked at a number of 30s, a 32, several 33s and two 330s. It appears that for all boats up to the 32, Cape Dory used fiberglass shaft logs. On the 33s and the 330 (and I am guessing everything bigger), they used bronze logs.

There are several different designs out there. It appears that some are designed to have a stuffing box attached (hard) to the log, while some rely on a length of reinforced hose. The depth of the deadwood on most CDs would prevent the use of a short log with the stiffing box attached.

My hunch is that it would be fairly straightforward to use the PSS dripless seal in conjunction with this log--instead of using the stuffing box pictured, attach a length of filberglass shaft log to the hose, and attach the shaftseal to that.

[johnny of STORK]

Thanks, Guest. BuckAlgonquin, got it. I've already got new hose and a new cutless bearing, but I can't see what kind of stern tube is in there, and I suspect a fiberglass one. I'd rather only go through this once.....
Johnny of STORK

[Nancy Martin]

Thanks to all for the words of advise regarding the leak in our stern tube.

As it happened, the maintenance guy, owner of said boat, nicked the lower portion of the stern tube while cutting out the old cutlass bearing. ....so much for having the yard pay for repair.

The first remedy tried was to insert epoxy with small patch of glass mat into tube.We plugged internal end with a seacock plug and sent water into exterior portion of stern tube. The leak was slowed but apparently the patch did not cover all the cut. Not any more room was in the tube due to the shaft.

Next remedy was to fabricate a cardboard dam around the stern tube inside the boat and fill with epoxy and microfiller toward the stern of the boat....hoping this would seal the cut from the outside.
If this didn't work the next remedy would be to cut out a portion of the hull and repair/replace stern tube.

After reassembling the shaft with new dripless seal we went back in to the water....holding our breaths.

We had 1/2 teasp of water. We ran the engine for about a hour and never had any more water. After going back to our dock we still did not have any more water when we left for the evening.

As you all know, if a dam has a trickle of water, the dam will eventually give way. If that happens we will have to haul and perform the major repair.

We are not sure if the water came from the cut in the tube or if the water is from the initial use of the waterless seal.

At this time we are going to monitor any water in the bilge.

Nancy & John Martin (maintenance guy)
CD31, Carina