My Ballad #1085 was converted to a Yanmar 2GMF by a previous owner. I've been unable to get detailed history of the conversion, but it appears to have been properly done. There was a regular-type stuffing box, the packing type, on the shaft tube. The forward end of the shaft tube has a slightly raised lip about 4mm wide which measures about 44mm (1 3/4") in diameter, then steps down to about 41mm in diameter. I assume this is to retain the hose clamp from slipping off.  On closer examination of the tube it appears the part I described above is actually a short sleeve fitted over the stern tube. Is this normal, or is it an "owner modification"? 
My reason for asking is that I know a conventional stuffing box will leak, and it appears there is nowhere for the water to go except to accumulate under the engine. (There are no drain holes to the bilge in my engine box.) For this reason I'm interested in a drip-less seal. Reading old posts it seems the Volvo Penta Rubber Stuffing Box may be a good solution. They make one that will fit my tube and shaft, #3819724. Are they truly leak-free? I'm interested to hear what success others have had with them. How do other Ballads drain accumulated water from the engine box? Drilling a drain hole would be easy, but it seems counter productive to create a path for leaked engine oil or fuel directly to the bilge, where an automatic pump will pump it overboard (unless your switch is a Water Witch) Ahh ... so many questions ... thanks for all and any help! Peter.  | Hi Peter,
My Ballad has a Yanmar 2GM20 and I had to replace the old original stuffing box last year. I replaced it with a Volvo Penta stern gland, which is truly epic, it was about £100 and I have been told they last many seasons. You do have to "burp" it every time go back in the water after a scrub (this just involves giving it a squeeze, or in reality giving a tug to the shaft) which is a little annoying as it involves scrabbling around in your lockers before starting your engine after a launch).
From what I remember, your stern tube looks as mine did when I did the job. The lip was there (it took some encouraging to get the stern gland over it I seem to remember). French Marine sell the Penta Stern gland, and you'll be glad to hear it comes with some good fitting instructions.
They are drip free, I haven't had a drop since I have installed it.
My engine does drain directly into the bilge, however, whilst there has been a very occasional drip of oil, I have never had any substantial problem with it filling my bilge with foul water.
Good luck!!
All the best,
Mark
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 | My installation of Volvo 2020B had a shaft seal of the type with two rubber lip seals with grease in between. Worked quite well except for the occasional drip. Replaced it with a PSS shaft seal, see www.shaftseal.com. which does not leak. The 2020B is a three cylinder engine which is long enough to make very little space for the shaft seal, and it´s bellows needed shortening a bit. Maybe your Yanmar is a bit shorter.
Dry sailing!
JosinJohn |
 | Hi Peter:
I, too, have fitted a Volvo drip-free stern gland and have had absolutely no problems with it. I'm on the second one right now--you need to change it every five years--and as Mark says all it needs is a "burping" after the launch. It's also good practice to lubricate it every time you take the boat out of the water; it's a simple process that involves squeezing in around the lip a bit of the lubricant that comes with gland. I think it must be the most simply designed and worry-free stern gland in the market and (unofficially) it will last well beyond five years. Some charter boats in Greece, with a casual attitude towards maintenance, have theirs changed every seven years. John's PSS is also excellent, but on my boat I had just enough space for the Volvo gland.
Nicholas
"Moments of Clarity" #334 |
 | Hi Peter.
I endorse what's been said, except mine has been trouble free for the ten years I've had the boat.
I still have an original two cylinder Vovlo. The shaft has been out to facilitate engine lifts.
No "burping" or lubricants, though.
I'm interested in the path your coolant pipe takes, however, to avoid the engine-pan drilling, which seems characteristic of original installations, as above. |
 | Another vote for the Volvo shaft seal. Shanty is on her second one, and they have been drip free, except for the year I forgot to burp the seal after craning in. The short trip to her mooring was enough to start a slight leak, hence the replacement.
When I bought her, Shanty's engine pan had a hole at the forward end, allowing the contents of the pan to drain into the bilge. I have blocked this hole, and just sponge out any liquid that appears in the pan.
Tim
"Shanty" #105 |
 | My stern tube is the same. I believe that what you're seeing is a stainless stern tube with a lip for retaining a hose clamp with a bronze sleeve bearing fitted inside it. A stainless stern tube with a stainless shaft spinning inside of it would end badly; the bronze sleeve prevents galling. My engine is the original Volvo MD7A with a conventional stuffing box. The stuffing box does drip, but only enough to lubricate the flax when the shaft is spinning (about one drip per minute). When the shaft is stationary, there is no dripping. In fact, I don't have an automated bilge pump, only a manual one. I sometimes leave my boat for up to a month, and when I return, the bilge is dry.
I don't know what a dripless seal costs, but flax costs about 12 dollars, lasts 10 years, more or less, and I can repack the box with the boat in the water. Water does accumulate under the engine. As the water sloshes around when I'm sailing, it drains through holes on the port and starboard sides of the well and into the bilge, where it is pumped overboard. I keep an oil-absorbing bilge pillow in there to prevent oil discharge.
Having rebuilt the engine in place when it blew up in the middle of a cruise, I can say that working on the Ballad's engine is an exercise in contortionism. To work on the shaft, the stuffing box, the transmission or most anything on the back side of the engine requires me to hang upside down in the starboard cockpit locker for extended periods of time (I no longer have access to the engine through the port locker as I converted this to permanent storage). The less I have to do this, the better, so if using flax means I can pack the box and more or less forget about it for ten years, I'm going with flax. That, and I can repack a stuffing box in the water. Whenever I install something on my boat, I always ask myself "how would I fix this mid-ocean"? I guess you can do this with a dripless, but I think it would be pretty scary.
In all, this is my own personal preference I guess. It seems other owners have installed a dripless seal successfully. To be honest with you, when my engine blew up years ago, rather than rebuilding it, I gave serious thought to throwing it overboard and glassing in the stern-tube. I hate my engine, and I hardly use it, but there are times when it's awfully convenient, so it's a necessary evil I suppose. Your feelings about your engine will likely determine which way you go on this. For me, the less I have to touch it or invest in it, the better. Good luck.
Joe
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 | We have a 2GM20 and Volvo seal. The seal is fine but we recently had a leak which turned out to be from round the stern tube; the engine is on very soft mounts and the prop shaft bangs on the tube when starting. We had to have the tube glassed in again, quite expensive. Ideally we'd fit a coupling between engine and stern seal but there's only about 2 cm space. We now take care to start the engine with plenty of fuel and only drop to tick over when she's warmed up. Moral is, don't let the prop shaft bang in the stern tube and possibly fit harder engine mounts.
Mike, Petasha (#3) |
 | prjacobs wrote on Nov 3, '11, edited on Nov 3, '11 Well thank you everyone for sharing your experiences! This is a truly great forum. I'm trying to do things right first time around as it's a lot easier than doing it twice, or sometimes in my case three times!
My Vega has a conventional stuffing box, and it's virtually trouble-free, but it does drip when running, and drops right into the bilge. The engine is easy to get at as the cockpit floor lifts out for total access to the stern gland, and adjustment is needed only a couple of times a year. On an average summer cruise I find I spend 50% of my travels under power so it's important to keep the engine happy. I put between 100 and 150 hours on it annually.
The Ballad has that nice engine enclosure that should make it a lot quieter. (I plan to add sound deadening to the inside of the cover.) But the downside is more difficult access. I put a small sliding access door on the quarter berth side, and am planning a large removable panel in the starboard locker. The engine pan does have holes in it for wiring and cooling water hose, but they are up higher so a fair bit of water could accumulate before it showed up in the bilge. This is why I'm looking at a drip-less box. From your feedback it sounds like the Volvo box is a good one (the price is right, too) so I'll order one and install it when the engine goes back in.
I keep my boat in the water 12 months of the year, so haul-outs only happen about every third year. I've been beaching the Vega to change zincs, and am wondering if anyone has built a set of legs for a Ballad?
Meanwhile, the restoration is going well, and I'm just about ready to start working in the forward cabin area.
Peter
#1085 'Bennath' |
 | I think that might be an owner modification because my Ballad is not that way. Somebody probably had a stuffing box for a larger shaft log that they wanted to use so they adapted the Ballad shaft log to match. I have a PSS drip lless seal on my boat that works well. It sometimes needs to be burped if it gets an air bubble in it. As far as cleaning out the oil pan under the engine goes...I use a sponge and a bucket. I keep it clean so I know if there is any new lakage of oil or water.
Tony
Ballad #191 Pleiades |
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