• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Stuffing box question....

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
Hello All,
I'm replacing the stuffing box on my E38 with a new Buck-Algonquin unit. The unit specs 1/4" packing, and in the pic below you will see that I have installed three turns of material into the gland nut. Notice the stop nut on the stuffing box spud. That is how far the gland nut screws on before the packing makes contact and starts compressing. Three to four threads at best. So the question I have, since I've never even replaced packing before, is this correct? Seems like too few threads of engagement to me..... Or is this the idea? Space to compress as needed? I'd sure like to know before installing this thing. Thanks, RT

PS, yes, thats how it was installed on the shaft.
 

Attachments

  • stuffbox.jpg
    stuffbox.jpg
    38.8 KB · Views: 317

u079721

Contributing Partner
Rob,

The first time I replaced the packing on the original unit on our 38 I also remember being rather surprised at how few threads were engaged - thinking it meant that I had messed up somehow. But not knowing any better I just decided to trust that the locking nut would be adequate to the task, and it did end up working just fine. I never measured it, but I suspect that with time it must have compressed the stuffing enough to tighten another two full turns at least.

Another approach is to use the putty like stuffing. In that case you replace the middle band with the putty, and that allows you to perhaps make it a bit thinner than the full 1/4" width of the regular stuffing, and get a bit more clearance.
 
Top