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Cabo shaft zincs

Discussion in 'Cabo Yacht' started by Capt Maritime, Aug 1, 2022.

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  1. Capt Maritime

    Capt Maritime Member

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    Installed the new shaft brushes.
    STBD Shaft Brush.jpg Port shaft brush.jpg
  2. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Sweet and clean.

    A thought;
    Your water injection to the shaft log seal assembly, that street 90 and nipple, Is that brass or bronze?
    Maybe something to ad (to the bottom of your work list) to check them out.
  3. Capt Maritime

    Capt Maritime Member

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    The water injection fitting is bronze. When I haul the boat both shaft glands are going to be removed as I’m going with PSS seals.
  4. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    The ones Cabo used were good seals, could re-seal those. Make sure the bronze fittings are clear from time to time and don't have growth in them.
  5. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    Do you mean the ones in the above photos, or are those different from what Cabo used originally?
    If the former, based on what I can see I wouldn't waste any money for re-sealing them.
  6. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Unless you know a trick, those seals must have the shaft / coupler separated to replace that seal.
  7. Capt Maritime

    Capt Maritime Member

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    The mechanical seals in the above photo are the original from Cabo. They are in decent condition, however the stbd one overheated due to scale blockage in the cooling water line. I have good water flow now and they are both preforming well. I’m not sure of any damage caused when water flow was restricted. We will see when I haul the boat out later this year.
  8. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Yes, Chatfield made them, but they were very stout/solid housings seals. Solid cast admiralty Bronze. They're structurally sound and nothing that bead blasting wouldn't clean right up. Or could buy new ones for about $500 a piece. Yes, you would have to split the coupler from the motor to reseal them. Try to find a set of Tide seals that last 17-25 years. They rarely had failures, out of several hundred Cabo's I've dealt with over the years, I only had one that needed to be resealed. OP states one overheated due to cooling water blockage and it's not even leaking. They look like they've never been serviced.

    If the seal does fail, the lip can be converted to a gland and you can put a ring of old school shaft packing material in to stop it from dripping until the boat can be hauled.

    Blue Water Shaft Seal, Chatfield Marine, CEL, dripless, bronze, NZ
  9. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    I never suggested Tides Marine seals, mostly because they are lip seals - as well as these Chatfield things are.
    In principle, I prefer face seals, like the PSS that the OP is planning to fit.
    Or, for life lasting, 100% rubberless stuff, the Fluiten seals.
    Though these are only available in large-ish sizes, possibly not down to the OP shafts size, IDK.
    And pretty sure you can't buy them for $500 a piece, anyway!

    Anyway, it would indeed be remarkable if such seal withstood overheating with no leaks, but I don't think it did.
    In this other recent thread, the OP said that the overheated one is indeed leaking under way.

    As an aside, it's interesting to see on the very same Chatfield website that they also produce what they call "zinc spinners", which are almost identical to the zincs that I previously suggested - as opposed to the traditional shaft zincs with their drawbacks.
    But we've done that to death by now.
  10. CSkipR

    CSkipR Member

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    When I had my Cabo43 they recommended no zincs on the shafts.
  11. Capt Maritime

    Capt Maritime Member

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    Understood - no shaft zincs are going on my 40 Cabo either. New shaft brushes were installed which are common bonded to the transom zinc.