the "forever part" is definitely not. I removed the rubber hose, after putting bees wax around the prop shaft, and pulled it forward to expose the tube. I found it to be bronze and corroded. I cut the corroded part of the tube off with a Drimmal tool and reinstalled the rubber hose pushing it further up onto the remaining tube. After all of that, it started to leak again. A bit of history might be in order. 15 years ago I had the dubious honor of being written up in the Boat US magazine. A wire for the Radar in my mast shorted out to the mast which was bonded to everything. The Radar fuse was 7.5 amps. The current being passed into the bonding system was a little less the 6 amps. I used a digital volt ohm meter between the negative battery wire and the battery post with everything turned off to determine the 6 amp flow. That 6 amp flow wiped out every throuth hull, prop shaft, prop, bonding wire and cutlass bearing. Every thing was replaced under insurance at a cost of over $10,000 dollars. What I didn't realize is that they didn't replace the stern tube or the heat exchangers. Both of the heat exchangers failed later and had to be replaced on my dime. I guess the stern tube will be as well. I guess I'm just lucky that it lasted as long as it did. I really do think that this is still a leftover issue from that incident.