oceandreams89
Member II
Hi everyone. This spring I had decided to replace the cutlass bearing on my 1989 E38-200, the job required removing the shaft to cut the old bearing out of the strut. I figured that was a good time to repack the stuffing box, which had not been done for nearly 10 years (old packing was the Gore stuff and was working great). I replaced the rubber hose and SS hose clamps at the same time.
The problem I'm having is this...
When I repacked the stuffing box the yard guy and I looked at the old and it seemed to be 1/4" packing. When I replaced the packing material with the 1/4" gore stuff (GTU or something) from W.Marine I could only get 2 wraps of material in the packing nut and it was extremely tight. The yard guy said it was fine so I put it back together and launched the boat this last week.
I checked the box for dripping and it had a slow drip as normal, and was told I should run the boat slowly in gear for a while at the dock to get everything seated properly. When I checked the gland after about 15 min at 1200 RPM it was very very hot. (before replacement it was always cool to the touch). I loosened the nut and much more water began dripping, and the slightest turn of the nut causes a much greater amount of water to come in, but the box it still very warm at 1200 RPM tied to the dock.
After checking the site, and reading the online owners manual I noticed they call for 1/8" packing which led me to believe that I had installed the wrong size material. I bought some 1/8" GTU and 3/16 GTU just in case, but the 1/8 seems much too small. I'm thinking the 1/4" is too big which is why I could only get 2 wraps in the packing nut. The nut had to be really worked over the propshaft to get it installed, nut the shaft seemed not too tight once I finally got the nut in place. I'm also thinking I should have compressed the 2 installed wraps and tried for a third....it was my first time doing this since my last 2 boats before had PSS seals installed when I bought them.
Can anyone tell me what they have used on their boats or if you have had similar issues. I have a 6 hour run down river to my marina in Mystic CT and I really dont want to leave where I am with a bad or overheating stuffing box. Any suggestions or tips?
Thanks so much!
Todd
The problem I'm having is this...
When I repacked the stuffing box the yard guy and I looked at the old and it seemed to be 1/4" packing. When I replaced the packing material with the 1/4" gore stuff (GTU or something) from W.Marine I could only get 2 wraps of material in the packing nut and it was extremely tight. The yard guy said it was fine so I put it back together and launched the boat this last week.
I checked the box for dripping and it had a slow drip as normal, and was told I should run the boat slowly in gear for a while at the dock to get everything seated properly. When I checked the gland after about 15 min at 1200 RPM it was very very hot. (before replacement it was always cool to the touch). I loosened the nut and much more water began dripping, and the slightest turn of the nut causes a much greater amount of water to come in, but the box it still very warm at 1200 RPM tied to the dock.
After checking the site, and reading the online owners manual I noticed they call for 1/8" packing which led me to believe that I had installed the wrong size material. I bought some 1/8" GTU and 3/16 GTU just in case, but the 1/8 seems much too small. I'm thinking the 1/4" is too big which is why I could only get 2 wraps in the packing nut. The nut had to be really worked over the propshaft to get it installed, nut the shaft seemed not too tight once I finally got the nut in place. I'm also thinking I should have compressed the 2 installed wraps and tried for a third....it was my first time doing this since my last 2 boats before had PSS seals installed when I bought them.
Can anyone tell me what they have used on their boats or if you have had similar issues. I have a 6 hour run down river to my marina in Mystic CT and I really dont want to leave where I am with a bad or overheating stuffing box. Any suggestions or tips?
Thanks so much!
Todd
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