How to repack a rudder stuffing box

Repacking the rudder stuffing box in the water. Its robust 6 ply hose and meant to take the abuse of a drive train.

Drop the rudder out when doing rudder ports 1 Loosen the brass jam nut turn off the large brass top nut dig out the old packing with a hook end pick tool.

How to repack a rudder stuffing box. Gore recommends not adjusting the stuffing box until you have run the boat in gear for about two hours of time. This allows the packing to take a set and break in some. When adjusting other types of flax the stuffing box should be relatively coolwarmish to luke warm at most.

As for the leak from below the stuffing box Ive ground off the material from the outside of the tube paint of some sort not gelkote mixed filler with West Systems epoxy covered the tube then put on three layers of glass from just underneath the bottom flange of the stuffing box. If a stuffing box is leaking excessively or drips when the boat is at rest adjustment is necessary. To do this loosen the locknut depending on type this may be the nut threaded around the body or lock washers on the bolts tighten the adjustment sleeve a little then retighten the locknut.

Flatten out the packing with a hammer so it fits in easy and it will make repacking faster. Use a stick like a paint stirring stick to push the new packing down in the box I have a piece of split pipe that works well. You could probably get by with 4 or 5 turns.

Some of those gland boxes. How to repack a traditional stuffing-box type stern gland Unscrew the cap. Remove the old packing.

Wrap new packing several times around the shaft and hold it tight. You can now repack the gland. You can now screw the cap in and tighten it against the locknut.

Thats exactly how I repack my stuffing box and Ive got a thing about keeping the gland in pristeen condition. I know that bronze shafts can really get rough where they are exposed but if you re-pack with this shaft be sure to clean the shaft as best you can before contaminating the new packing as it goes in. Speaking of packing you didnt mention what type you.

Changing the packing material in a prop shaft stuffing box should be a simple 4-step task. Loosen the packing nut. Remove the old packing flax material.

Insert the new lacking flax material. Re-tighten the packing nut. I did my initial overviewanalysis of how my propeller shaft packing gland works in August of 2020.

That previous post has a discussion of the anatomy of the contraption and which. I went online to find more information on how to repack the driveshaft stuffing box and found what I think is a good site with a very good graphical explaination. Can you guys take a look at this site and tell me if that is pretty much what I am going to see on my boat.

It looks like a pretty easy jobbut I know the minute I say that. Repacking the rudder stuffing box in the water. Definitely get the packing puller that looks like a little corkscrew on a flex shaft.

Itll save time and keep you from inventing new combinations of curse words. Make sure to get all the old packing out until you can hear the corkscrew metal against metal at the deep end of the gland. How to repack Rudder Shaft and more Video 17 - YouTube.

How To Replace Your Drive Rudder Shaft Stuffing Box Packing With GFO - YouTube. One item I skipped on over the winter was repacking the prop shaft stuffing box. Last year it was perfect - no drips unless the shaft was spinning.

This year once launched the seal was leaking pretty good all the time. I can tighten it to slow it down but then it. Real boat mechanics use a pair of packing wrenches that cost about 4 times that.

And to get the packing material out I found a pack of 4 picks at Harbor Freight for like 2. Youll have to back the first nut all the way off then use the picks to pick the waxy rope packing out of the packing gland. Most rudder ports are nothing more than traditional bronze stuffing boxes mounted in a vertical position over the boats rudder post.

They use a simple packing nut to compress packing material around the shaft. Once the packing nut is adjusted the locking nut is tightened to prevent the packing nut from coming loose. To replace the packing while the rudder is still installed requires removal of the steering quadrant loosen and lift up the packing gland in order to have enough room to remove the packing.

By Danny Bailey Tue Apr 20 2010 1221 am. You should not have to remove anything but the packing nut to repack it. If a rudder stuffing box is packed correctly it should last for decades with occasional tightenings.

The shaft falling out when you took the arm off is no indication of the packing condition just that it was not tight. I am curious if I have the lock nut on the rudder stuffing box as tight as it can get against stuffing box and still leaks does that only point to repacking the stuffing box. I need to have someone run the boat and get down and check but both show leaking even after being tightened.

Apr 12 2009 2 B. If you happen have your shaft out now would be a good time to replace your stuffing box hose. The thick hose on top is specifically made for stuffing boxes.

Its robust 6 ply hose and meant to take the abuse of a drive train. The thick hose on top is made by Buck Algonquin a manufacturer of quality bronze of packing boxes. Teach me how to tighten rudder stuffing box.

Right its like a cap. The packing is underneath it. The shaft appears to show in the last picture theres a shadow from the bolt on it.

As far as the bolt. Only a guess but Id say mounting hardware from the upper bearing. In my picture thats the triangular looking part with the three bolts.

Brass stuffing Boxs Brass Ruder Ports. These all use the same principal of compressing a packing around a shaft. Drop the rudder out when doing rudder ports 1 Loosen the brass jam nut turn off the large brass top nut dig out the old packing with a hook end pick tool.

Stretch out on a table match the length cut the replacement the same. The rubber stuffing box offers a low maintenance solution and yet offers a long life span when hand led properly. Apply grease every 200 running hours or once a year and ventilate the seal after launch ing the boat for many years fault less function.

Easy to install The seal is very easy to install due to its compact and simple design.