Shaft Packing
- Thread starter dritter
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2003
- RO Number
- 12212
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- 12,221
depedns on the boat... if access is good, it's easy. if the stuffing boxes are buried somewhere witha bunch of stuff in the way... it's a major PIB. Vee drives are worst since it's under the engine!
get the flexible cork screw tool to dig the old stuff, it's much easier.
make sure your bilge pumps are working.. you'll need them although it's nothing to panic about. your standard 2000gph pump should easily keep up. also, consider using the goretex material, much easier to install as you dont' need grease and its virtually drip free.
get the flexible cork screw tool to dig the old stuff, it's much easier.
make sure your bilge pumps are working.. you'll need them although it's nothing to panic about. your standard 2000gph pump should easily keep up. also, consider using the goretex material, much easier to install as you dont' need grease and its virtually drip free.
Perhaps this will help : http://www.gore.com/sealants/english/documents/installingpumppackingsgf2.pdf .
Make sure you inspect the shaft for scoring if you can get a decent viewing angle.
Make sure you inspect the shaft for scoring if you can get a decent viewing angle.
Just did this recently, both for the drive shaft and rudder. It was a piece of cake. I didn't have the flexible corkscrew tool, but someone on this board recommended taking a drywall screw and screwing it into the old rings of packing to remove one ring at a time. That worked great.
Sandy's link says don't roll or hammer the new packing. I rolled mine lightly anyway, which made it very easy to slide into the gland.
Sandy's link says don't roll or hammer the new packing. I rolled mine lightly anyway, which made it very easy to slide into the gland.
Thanks for the replys. I want to get it done before the boat goes in the water. How much packing does it usualy take? I have v-drives. I looked at it last summer and it is easy to see and get to. How often should there be a drip? Is it 1 drip every couple of minutes?
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2004
- RO Number
- 12830
- Messages
- 674
A drip every few minutes is consider good, or even excellent.
If you use GFO packing, you don't really need to drip at all. Hand tighten the packing retainer (don't wrench it down) so you don't overcompress the packing when you install it. Launch the boat and inspect the glands. Tighten down to a very low drip rate (one or two drips a minute at idle speed in gear. Then run the boat for an hour and re-adjust. You have to put back as many rings as you took out. Some will hold 3 rings some will hold 6 or 7 rings. Make sure you get all the old packing out. It's also hard to look at old packing and figure out what size it was when new. I take the packing out then insert the largest drill bit into the gland that will slide in ( like a feeler gauge) then that's the size packing you need.
Once you remove the old stuff, you'll know how many rings you need. Then you can do the math to figure out how much to order: pi * (shaft diameter plus packing size) is a good approximation. For instance, for my 1.5" shaft with 1/4" packing: 3.14 * 1.75 = 5.5" per ring. So two feet of packing was good for 4 rings.
I agree with Gregory EXCEPT the number of rings might not be as many as you take out. For instance you may pull out five and only be able to compress 4 of the Gore. This is not a problem when using Gore. Just proceed. Also, zero drips with Gore is fine.
I have the above direct from two Gore offices; the home office and their St. Loius office. In those conversations I was told by Gore's St. Loius rep that the only problem he had was with some old time comm'l. rivermen who would clean out the packing gland and then apply grease before putting in Gore's product. They did leak.
When handling the Gore product you might wear latex gloves. It is black and will get all over your hands. Not really a problem. Clean up was pretty easy. Good Luck!! JS
I have the above direct from two Gore offices; the home office and their St. Loius office. In those conversations I was told by Gore's St. Loius rep that the only problem he had was with some old time comm'l. rivermen who would clean out the packing gland and then apply grease before putting in Gore's product. They did leak.
When handling the Gore product you might wear latex gloves. It is black and will get all over your hands. Not really a problem. Clean up was pretty easy. Good Luck!! JS