Carver Owners Forum

So after months, I finally got my 98 Carver 405 to her slip from 500 miles away.
I have put 60 hours on my engines ( 425 and 417 now) and they are running fine.
I have put 99 hours on my generator (710 now) and I ran it a little last night. It sounded different somehow and I am pretty in tune with the engines now. So into the engine compartment I went.

Water pooling up under the generator in the pan spilling over into the mid bilge.
No obvious hose leaks

Wet muffler? Elbow? What should I check?

Your thoughts please and thank you

Follow the raw water in from the thru hull ,....check the raw water pump, if you have the type that is at the back of the generator head mounted to the shaft, then it could be leaking from there....possilbilities are cracked housing, hose clamp, shaft seal......its a start, but you said the engine sounds different, so changes in water flow out the exhaust is usually noticeable that way.

The 10E has a belt driven pump at the front of the engine. A sea water pump shaft seal is a common leak point. But the fact that you hear a difference in the engine sound means you should check the exhaust system carefully. You don't want a CO leak with your water leak.

I didn't have time to check it last night before I left.
Busy schedule prevents me from checking for a few days.
But i will update when i can check it
Thank you for the information and ya have a great weekend

Okay here is the update. I believe my main leak is coming from the velvet drive coupler shown in the picture.
My captain who drove the boat back with me over 7 days mentioned a small leak was okay because the shaft needed lubrication. The port side is dry, so I would prefer the starboard side be dry as well. It was a drip or two every 15 seconds and now it has become a dribble.
Is there a way to stop this leak without taking the boat out of the water?
98 405 7.4 mercs with velvet drives

Sadly my mechanic was supposed to and states he did replace this seal 3 months ago. He is 10 hours away now.

I appreciate your thoughts as always

You should be able to tighten that packing gland.You don't have to pull the boat out either.

That is a common maintenance item. It can be adjusted or in worse case the packing replaced. No reason to haul the boat this is normally done in the water. I'm not sure that you would get water in the generator drip pan from that though. From the looks of them, the shaft log hose clamps need to be replaced too. Use a good quality 316 SS clamp.

Ya, the guys are right, this is done in the water. Loosen the small jam nut, then tighten the large nut just a bit. The caution here is that you don't want to tighten it too much. That would cause too much heat, ruin the packing, and could ruin the shaft at that location. Whether you like it or not, a little drip every couple of minutes is normal with this type of log, and more frequent when the shaft is spinning. I'd be more concerned about the one that never drips unless someone has replaced the flax packing with a more exotic material designed not to drip.

If you can't get the dribble to stop, you'll likely need to replace the packing. Again, if you're properly prepared in advance, you can do this in the water.

It all depends on whether you have dripless or not. As previously stated, if they are not dripless, they should drip a drop or two every 20 - 30 seconds when not operating, and more frequently when running.

Depending on which shaft we are looking at, the nuts may be left handed thread, so righty tighty, lefty looosey may not apply!