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Vetus Dripless Stern Gland Dripping :(


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My boat has some kind of Vetus dripless stern gland. I must admit to having no idea how it works, and have done nothing with it since buying the boat in 2011. Hope the pics dont come out too big :(

 

A few weeks ago I cleaned out the bilge of rust, and gave it a coat of Vactan with a view to doing a proper paint job in a few weeks time. Over the weekend we went on a short trip for a pub lunch, (1 mile round trip), and the following day I noticed some water in the bilge, and the gland dripping about once every ten seconds. It's stopped dripping now, and actually dried up a little, but it's obviously time to do something with the gland.

 

I've heard of "burping" a dripless gland, squirting some grease into it, and replacing bits of it completely, (which may mean withdrawing the shaft a bit or a lot). However, I cant find any info to tell me exactly which gland I have, and how to maintain and/or fix it.

 

I'm hoping I just need to squirt some grease, (special type of grease??), in to start with, but I dont know where and how, so any advice will be welcomed. I think I've got a decent grease gun somewhere, but it will probably only have ordinary grease in it.

 

Many thanks,

 

Richard

 

 

Vetus 1.jpeg

Vetus 2.jpeg

Vetus 3.jpeg

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57 minutes ago, 1agos said:

We have a Vetus dripless stern gland on our boat, but doesn't look anything like your picture. Someone will be along to help I'm sure.

Exactly :(

 

but its got Vetus imprinted on both the brass bits and the rubber gaitor.

Edited by Richard10002
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1 hour ago, 1agos said:

We have a Vetus dripless stern gland on our boat, but doesn't look anything like your picture. Someone will be along to help I'm sure.

 

Likewise. Also they need lubricating with silicon grease (I use "Plumbagrease) every 100 hours. On mine you remove an Allen bolt on the top of the gland and squirt a tiny bit of grease in.

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29 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

From experience, once these "new fangle" ceramic/carbon face seals start leaking it is too late to lubricate, time to replace. This dinosaur wonders why we ever changed from a re-packable adjustable gland with a greaser.

 

Because it suits the rag  & string brigade and exceptional value packages are perhaps made available to boat builders.

 

I am with you and also have no idea.

  • Greenie 1
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2 hours ago, Boater Sam said:

From experience, once these "new fangle" ceramic/carbon face seals start leaking it is too late to lubricate, time to replace. This dinosaur wonders why we ever changed from a re-packable adjustable gland with a greaser.

 

 

7 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

Agreed! I would be quite happy with a normal stern gland with grease and packing..... But, "we are where we are!", as they say :(

Sorry, Richard, but we had one on our first boat and were told it would be fine until it failed - then it would be a complete replacement job. It didn't, but we replaced the boat.

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1 hour ago, Richard10002 said:

Agreed! I would be quite happy with a normal stern gland with grease and packing..... But, "we are where we are!", as they say :(

Ah, but you may be in luck, it all depends upon the castings. Because you have that flexible rubber hose you MIGHT be able to get just the gland part from a conventional flexible gland and fit it in place of the dripless gland. You need to ensure that an over tight gland can not twist and tear the hose though.

 

Have a look here - item number 10.

 

http://www.tnorrismarine.co.uk/product/stern-gear/

 

I suspect that is you undo the castellated brass cap that you may find a normal lip seal under it.

 

Edited by Tony Brooks
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After fitting a Pythondrive to Innisfree I started to worry that their was no drip from the conventional stern gland. I readjusted it a few times before I realised it was OK and just didn't drip or need adjusting. It remained drip and trouble free for several thousand hours before I sold the boat, prob still OK. 

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1 minute ago, nb Innisfree said:

After fitting a Pythondrive to Innisfree I started to worry that their was no drip from the conventional stern gland. I readjusted it a few times before I realised it was OK and just didn't drip or need adjusting. It remained drip and trouble free for several thousand hours before I sold the boat, prob still OK. 

Ditto when I bought the boat 19 years ago except I did not worry, no prop thrust or misalignment to chew the packing up.

 

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It's beginning to look like I might actually have a normal stuffing box with packing, but no grease:

 

http://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/sole-diesel/product-21491-274377.html

 

the stuffing box in the link looks a bit like mine, so the chances are that, If I remove the screw which looks like it stops the end cap spinning, unscrew the end cap, I may find normal packing.

 

If this is correct, it may not be a problem that there is a bit of a drip from time to time, although I will probably look at replacing the packing next time I'm out of the water, perhaps next May/June

 

I've got a week off now, so I may chance removing the end cap gradually, and see what happens, and what I find.

Edited by Richard10002
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  • 10 months later...

Richard, did you ever find a solution to this?   I've got the exact same gland as yours on my Vetus (dates from 1999) and yours is the only similar one I have found on the internet.  All the others I've seen have water coolant hoses attached.

Anyway mine is leaking badly, so curious to know what solution you found....

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1 hour ago, phoenix_andrew said:

Richard, did you ever find a solution to this?   I've got the exact same gland as yours on my Vetus (dates from 1999) and yours is the only similar one I have found on the internet.  All the others I've seen have water coolant hoses attached.

Anyway mine is leaking badly, so curious to know what solution you found....

No... is the short answer. I unscrewed the cap, and no leak or drip. I’m probably coming out of the water in August/September, so will probably take it to bits then. Nothing seems to be going wrong at the moment, and I’m not taking it to bits in the water :) 

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On 07/06/2018 at 16:48, Boater Sam said:

From experience, once these "new fangle" ceramic/carbon face seals start leaking it is too late to lubricate, time to replace. This dinosaur wonders why we ever changed from a re-packable adjustable gland with a greaser.

 

 

Because they are simpler and less polluting perhaps? We could ask such questions forever... Why did we ever replace the horse with the diesel engine? 

 

They're called water lubricated stern glands rather than "dripless glands" and in my experience (15 years with a Vetus water lubricated stern gland) just like a greasy stern gland a slow drip isn't an issue as long as you have a working bilge pump.

 

However, the gland shown in the OP's picture doesn't look like mine, but if it hasn't been serviced it in 8 years it's asking for trouble. Get some thick silicone grease in there asap and that may reduce the drip. If not and it's dripping excessively then you might need new seals. 

 

Someone I know found that their gland had worn the prop shaft around the seals. I don't think they'd serviced it either. His workaround was to slide the shaft (forwards or backwards) by about 5mm which placed a new area of shaft under the seals and stopped it dripping. 

 

The main point is to service these glands every 100 hours. It's only adding some silicone grease and shouldn't be beyond the capability of most boaters. 

Edited by blackrose
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On 07/06/2018 at 18:42, Richard10002 said:

Agreed! I would be quite happy with a normal stern gland with grease and packing..... But, "we are where we are!", as they say :(

 

Ok well, ignore what I said as it looks like you do have a normal stern gland after all!

 

You'll need to add grease and repack that one from time to time.

Edited by blackrose
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51 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Ok well, ignore what I said as it looks like you do have a normal stern gland after all!

 

You'll need to add grease and repack that one from time to time.

Yes... just don’t know how to add grease without taking it apart. Not confident to take the jubilee clips off the rubber tube until out of the water.

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3 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

Yes... just don’t know how to add grease without taking it apart. Not confident to take the jubilee clips off the rubber tube until out of the water.

 

Seems strange that it has no greaser mechanism. Any gland needs grease whatever kind it is. The water lubricated glands obviously only need a tiny amount of silicone grease which is used to lubricate the seals rather than the shaft. But even they have an access point to add grease. Yours seems to have nothing at all.

 

Definitely look into a new gland next time you're out of the water.

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