When we had the seals replaced in Guadaloupe last year they installed them exactly as you have described.

Paul LaFrance
SV NOMAD #362



To: amelyachtowners@...
From: jgvenegas@...
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:10:13 +0000
Subject: [Amel] Amel drive seals




























Last fall I replaced the drive seals of my SM following the directions provided by the factory. The inner two seals oriented to prevent oil from escaping and the outer one oriented to prevent water from entering. Clearly, once the outer seal fails, water begin to enter into the drive even if the two other seals are still intact.

Since I changed them, I have been thinking that, although perhaps less ecological, it could be advantageous to invert the orientation of the seals so that the two inner seals would be oriented to prevent water from entering the drive and the outer seal to prevent oil from leaving it. This seems to have two advantages. First, and fore most, one needs two seals to get damaged, instead of one, in order to for water to enter the drive. As the outer seal begin to fail, some oil could begin to be slowly lost, which could be easily replaced until one is able to fix the problem but the remaining oil will not be mixed with water. With the current seal orientation, replacing the water/oil emulsion is not feasible unless one takes to boat out of the water.

The second advantage is that oil will be able to lubricate well the inner and central seals while water would be lubricating the outer one. In the current orientation oil and water are prevented from lubricating any of the seals and once the grease initially used is lost the seals become dry.

Has any one tried inverting the orientation of the seals?

Am I missing something basic here?



Has any


















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