On our '95 Mark II the stern tube is 1 1/2" shaft is 1". Oddly enough I know this because I just bought an old time stuffing box to replace that new fangled PSS thingie in there.

So go ahead ask me why I am doing this heretical thing.

OK I'll tell you why.

1./The keel stepped mast on these boats leaks. It seems unlikely a dry bilge will ever result.
2./An old time stuffing box rarely, if ever, fails catastrophically. In fact it's almost impossible for it to do that. If the bellows on a PSS gets ripped, you got a big problem right now.
3./Our PSS is at least 9 years old, PSS says the bellows should be changed at 6 years. The bellows costs as much as an old time stuffing box does.
4./PO put an air conditioner in it. The air conditioner drips water, guess where? Yes! Into the bilge!! Of course we are taking the A/C out since it occupies valuable storage space. (Anybody want a fairly new working AC unit?)

Since there is not much chance of a dry bilge, why run the risk of the PSS bellows when for the same price I can get the old reliable? Just sayin' is all.

I concur, 1 1/2"

Bud, I am curious what your going to do with your old one? I have one on ours and would take your old one off your hands. Email me thru here and Let me know if you would.
Randy

Randy, I was going to put it on eBay but if you want it it's yours. The bellows actually looks to be in good shape, no cracks or crazing or anything that I could see though there are some signs it was slinging stuff out of the bearing unit at one time or another, possibly just from when it was burped?

I also have this AC unit in the boat I want rid of but don't have time to take out this spring. Anybody out there want a free AC unit? DIY removal is the only cost, but the boat is in Belleville, ON. It is a Cabin Mate by Marine Air systems reverse cycle unit, not sure on age but I think it's 4 or 5 years old.

Bud, I tend to agree with you on the drip-less seal's possibility of catastrohic failure vs. the slow drip of a packing gland seal. My boat has the drip-less and I do worry about it.

Gary, on another forum on the web there's been several threads dealing with this. It isn't so much that the seal fails, although they have been known to leak and not want to stop, it is usually some kind of damage happens to the bellows. If you google "dripless shaft seal failures" you'll get a lot of reading material.

The examples cited are mostly anecdotal. I did come across one entry from a guy who managed to somehow get a hose clamp end fouled in the bellows and it tore the bellows almost in half. He was at his slip and managed to get the boat in a sling before it did much damage but he said his 2000 gph pump could not keep up.

I did a lot of reading on this and I couldn't find anything that indicated there is a fix for a torn bellows other than binding it up as tight as possible with whatever you have at hand and head for a lift. Problem is, you now have no engine, with any kind of wrapping on the bellows to try to staunch the flow you likely can't turn the shaft. I think that PSS's recommendation to change the bellows without fail every 6 years is also an acknowledgment that there is a real risk of bellows failure without mechanical damage occurring.

It's just more risk than I'm willing to take especially given that this boat will never have a dry bilge. I can however contain the bilge water to a very small section of the bilge and use a small pump to keep it dry, I did that with the 28 and it worked very well.

Bud:
I sent you a email, we can continue there if you wish.
Randy