Tides Shaft Seal

[Russ Calasant]

Hopefully someone can clarify something, being up north for the winter I disconnected and capped the raw water feed from the motors on my shaft seals. 1000 miles later I found that, for some reason, I neglected to reconnect the starboard seal. Doesn’t appear to be any damage or issue - why?
The hose coming from the seal was tucked up above the waterline, when pulled down water did flow out - is this due to the crossover line? If so under pressure, under way there must have been water pumping out into the bilge but I didn’t notice the pump or witness any water under the motor. Logically I would think the crossover is what saved any issue there must have been water pumping out - thoughts?
Thank you

 

[ZZ13]

When you disconnect at the shaft seal you have two leak sources. First, the open end from the source to the shaft seal will pump out water when the engine is running. On my boat that source is a nipple on the gear oil cooler. That water should have run into the bilge and been pumped out by the bilge pump. Check where that hose was tucked and look for salt water corrosion on the metal parts at that point and below. Second, the open shaft seal nipple will leak water. The cap helps a lot but is not a perfect seal. You probably had a little trickle coming out of it.

The starboard seal did not get cooked because of the crossover. Your port engine was supplying cooling water to both seals.