J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Leaking packing seal

The dripless seal has a flexible bellows and a rotating sealing surface. The only adjustment is how far the bellows is compressed depending on where it is clamped onto the shaft log. Look at the link in my post above for good picture of this.

The standard seal may be a split design that compresses a packing around the shaft. Some have a threaded packing gland nut that slides over the shaft. Key to this is packing that is inserted and compressed to prevent leakage. As pointed out in other posts above, this type seal requires a small amount of leakage to keep it lubricated. Here's a good link on stuffing box type shaft seal packing replacement.