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Stuffing Box info demo

rod sanburn

Member II
Hello All,
I remember some time back that there was a excellent stuffing box info, put together with pic's. I copied it but can not find it on the Mac. Anybody remember the link?? Rod
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/stuffing_box

Here is a nice thread, from one of our regulars.

On the EY.org site, open the Search function, then check the Advanced Search box. then put in the key word Stuffing, and check the maint. forum. Three pages of hits, and while that's quite a few, it should pick up most of the relevant ones.

Questions? Let us know!
This is a well-covered maint. topic and comes around regularly for thousands of boat owners.

Regards,
Loren
 
Last edited:

Sven

Seglare
Thanks Loren.

The mechanic told us our stuffingbox didn't have enough room so we'd have to pull the shaft to re-bed it. Now I know what to look for to confirm.



-Sven
 

Sven

Seglare
Of course, thanks to Maine Sail too for putting together the article in the first place !



-Sven
 

Glyn Judson

Moderator
Moderator
Stuffing box space problem.

Sven and all, I too had the problem your facing with our current boat. The original Yanmar 2QM15 was replaced in 1988 with the more powerful and longer Yanmar 3GMF and with that came the inability to change the shaft packing in the water. Upon one of my first haul outs I pulled the shaft and was able to shorten the log by 1 1/2", sufficient for me to now change the packing myself. By the way, I want to toss out an idea I've never tried myself yet. I envision staunching the inflow of water with the packing cup unscrewed by using part of a bees wax toilet bowl ring to stuff around the shaft and the fixed half of the stuffing box. My thinking goes along the lines of the wax hardening when it comes into contact with sea water, thereby sealing the water off and staying in place for the time it takes to repack the cup. Then when ready to reassemble it can be easily removed by first picking at and then peeling off all evidence of the wax. I've never had the opportunity to prove this to myself because years ago I installed that West Marine Drip-Less Packing Kit along with Teflon Stuffing Box Lubricant and I just can't get the shaft to leak. You might want to check to see if you have enough log length of lop off enough to solve your problem. Glyn
 

Sven

Seglare
Thanks for the suggestion Glyn.

The mechanic's solution was to replace the stuffing box with a (pardon my mangling of his description) stuffing box which has two graphite faces rotating against each other to provide the seal. I think he said there was a bellows that provided the flex and pressure ?

Does that make anyone say that's a whatchmawhosits you are talking about ?

I wasn't listening too carefully since he'd just told us about replacing our 33 y.o. 80-gallon diesel tank :)


-Sven
 

Sven

Seglare
Sorry to hog this thread but ...

... I was just thinking back to the stuffing box on my parents beautiful 26' coastal cruiser. The stuffing box was probably hand made and it is only in retrospect that I've started appreciating it.

I think (I am not sure) that the stuffing box was similar to what we see today; a tube with stuff that presses up against the shaft and keeps water out. What was different on that ancient stuffing box was that it was filled with really heavy grease. What made it so practical was that a small bronze (?) tube led up from the stuffing box, up into the lazarette where the shift lever was and up there was a reservoir for the grease and a cap that you tightened to press more grease into the stuffing box. To tighten the seal in the stuffing box you just tightened the cap on the reservoir a turn. When the reservoir bottomed out you just added more grease to it.

I don't know where the grease went. Some of it probably melted into the bilge over time and some into the Baltic Sea, but sure was a great problem-free setup.



-Sven
 

Dan Morehouse

Member III
PSS seal

The two graphite sealing faces and the bellows sounds like a description of the PSS shaft seal. I think it requires a little more length for installation than a conventional stuffing box. The website is www.pyiinc.com.

Dan Morehouse
1981 E-38 "Next Exit"
 
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