[PSUBS-MAILIST] Oil Compensator

[Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles]

What I've gleaned so far is that regardless of oil vs air method, nobody 
has addressed the space between the shaft seals on the minn-kota so from 
that perspective the methods are equal.  Regarding that void between the 
seals I have to again wonder if the two seals are really necessary in a 
compensated system.  I'm looking at one of my MK101 lower units and the 
space between seals is about 6mm.  But for sake of argument, assuming 
both seals are required, could you not simply remove the spacer and 
outer seal, fill some part of the void with oil and then discard the 
spacer but install the outer seal so it butts against the oil reservoir 
creating a sandwich of inner-seal, oil, outer-seal.

I really like the air compensation system that Greg and Cliff 
described.  While it is simplistic in theory, I am concerned that I am 
going to end up with an octopus of tubing trying to retrofit it to the 
K-600 using the existing hull penetrations.  However, not needing to pot 
the wires at the motor or worry about fluid creep between insulating 
wires is attractive.  I also notice in my unit that there is white 
grease lubricating the thrust bearing and shaft seals.

Jon