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Ohh, sorry to hear. When my dripless shaft seal was leaking, the lack of the water lubricant was creating friction on the collar and this heat made the prop squeal. The shaft seal might also have a bubble in it, which will create heat, too. I suggest trying to "burb" it first before you go out and see if that doesn't fix it.

Thanks C for the advice. I remember reading something akin to your idea. Kind of the way this goes. Read a lot, forget most, then the disaster occurs. Mind scrambles to find the engrams that have that apply.

Now I have to figure how to get that rubber gizmo up on my shoulder to burp it.

Bill and Carole — to “burp” the thing , pull the water intake 1/2” hose to the pss shaft. pull aft about an inch - the water should squirt briskly and forcibly out of it! Have motor running and put in forward at dock, pull the water intake again at the pss seal. Water should squirt all over from there. If water is flowing you should be good— put in forward and reverse. If no water squirts then you have an obstruction in the hose somewhere.

Asking this at 6am, so if I am not clear, consider the hour.

As there is no water delivery to what I am looking at, assume I have a dripless seal? This is a rubber boot immediately after a small bit of shaft exiting the transmission.

Bill - could be you have a Volvo seal which doesn’t have a vent hose. Web search says it must be burped upon launch - If it is a Volvo seal, to burp it, grab the seal, squeeze and slightly twist it until water comes out, then let go....
Also check out this on pss https://pbase.com/mainecruising/pss_shaft_seal&page=2

Also Bill - we have the same boat so let’s check out these details when we meet - mine has pss shaft seal with vent hose. Vent hose runs directly aft and up by my exhaust hose - a very tight fit indeed. If I put a good bit of pressure on the exhaust hose, it touches the vent hose and water squirts out the bellows on the shaft. I have the exhaust hose tied off away from the vent hose (1/2” off).

The PYI shaft seals also come without a vent hose but you have to specify it. The default is a vent but that adds another inch or two to the length and won't fit the short spacing that I have between the shaft log and the transmission coupling. If you don't have the vent, you should have some type of rubber baffle that can be pressed aftwards enough that the water squirt outs. The water automatically fills up inside the baffle as long as the air bubble has been removed. If you've hauled out, this is why the baffle needs to be burped, but it's possible that an air bubble has caught up in there. In my case, there was room on the shaft log for only one hose clamp. I put two on because 2 is always better than 1 (right...?!?) and coming back from my sail to Hawaii, the hose clamp slipped and gouged into the baffle. Because I did not have good water source for the lubricant, the spinning prop's friction on the metal collar against the Delrin ring created too much friction and heat, which create the squeal that I heard. squealing.

FYI "dripless" means it does not have a stuffing box, which is meant to leak. There are other types of dripless seals. So far, I've only found the PYI type to work on the F38. which is too bad because others are less expensive....

This is what the PYI baffle looks like:
https://www.shaftseal.com/pss-maintenance-kit.html

And this is the PYI seal with the Delrin ring and SS collar: https://www.shaftseal.com/pss-type-a-seal.html

However that second link is also showing the vent line....

Bay Area roundup is Saturday! We plan on getting to Aquatic 11 ish. Raft up or straight anchor is good. If we can, lunch ashore for clam chowder etc is right there very close by? Dink ashore. Do we want to plan a pot luck type dinner and breakfast on board? Breakfast we can bring hash browns, bacon, and varied peppers, etc...., dinner we are open! Suggestions? Who’s coming?

Tom, I think I'm down but for Saturday only. I am a consultant and I've been in full on drought conditions lately. Right now, the work feels like drinking from a fire hose, which has the potential to shut off without warning. So I need to work this Sunday again. It might also just be Good Way and Kynntana. Haven't heard from any others.

Apologize for not following up...

Thanks to all for advice. Took the boat out again for a 1/2 run and no squealing. But there is some play in the shaft/seal, collar (not boot) is warm to touch and I'm not experienced enough to judge the tactile empirical measure versus written word.

We're out, headed to see daughter instead. I should make a separate thread for shaft seal maintenance.