Re-Packing A Stuffing Box - A New Photo DIY Article

[mainesail]

 Hi All,

I have seen this question, "how do I re-pack my stuffing box" posed literally hundreds of times and still no-one had a good photo based article on how to change the flax packing in an old school stuffing box. This afternoon it was ridiculously rainy, hahvin' a Noh' Eastaah, and too miserable to go to the boat yard so I dug out my old stuffing box, cleaned it up and created a photo based how-to article on re-packing a stuffing box. I hope this helps someone and when this question comes up again perhaps we can just copy and paste a link !

If I missed or forgot any important points please let me know and I'll make the changes. As usual I'm not claiming these are the be all end all instructions just the only ones I know of that are in-depth and picture based.

There are two pages to this article so be sure and click page two when you get to the end of page one!

Here's the link: http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/stuffing_box

Happy Sailing,

Maine Sail
My Sailing Photo Galleries
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising

[Jim Price]

These photos are great!  Can you rebuild the entire boat, engine, panel, decks, hull and provide photos?  Just kidding!!  Great documentation!!   

The only things I did different is I did mine in the water.  Used a plastic baggy and tape to secured around the shaft after I pulled the packing nut loose.  Some water gets in the boat but not really much at all.  The baggy held up just fine and I was surprised that it actually stopped the flow when it got full and it was not under any pressure - just full.

Also I packed my Gore GFO into the nut itself instead of on the shaft as the male end of the system was sealed inside the baggy.  I seated each ring (properly spacing the three ends) in the nut using a modified pencil with its eraser head cut down in a rectangle shape to fit exactly into the flax grove.  This worked the Gore GFO in without any damage and I could get a nice flat seating for each ring.  Then I popped the bag (catching the most of the water in a shallow tray) and slid the nut in place and job was done!

Additional thought, I used my steel pick to carefully trace each thread inside the nut to remove any remaining old flax.  The old stuffing came out easy enough but left a lot of hard pieces stuck in the threads.  You will want to clean these so you will get a good seal with the new Gore GFO.  Just don't get aggressive with this step - the pick is harder than the nut.

[Ron Hill]

Main : Nice article. 
As I wrote in an early 1990s Mainsheet article, you can make your "pick" out of a piece of cloths hanger sharpened at the end and a "tamper" out of a flat end #2 pencil by carving two sides alittle flatter. 

[Stu Jackson]

The link to the FAQ that I wrote in 1999 (withOUT pictures - pre-digital camera age) is:  http://www.c34.org/faq-pages/faq-stuffing-box.html

I continue to note that the e-marine Gore Tex material was NOT invented when I wrote that FAQ, so use both references.  Thanks again, Maine Sail, nice job.

[Bob K]

Here's question for you veteran Gore packing users........I used the e-marine Gore packing for the first time this season.  I launched the boat, checked for drips on the trip over to the slip and saw next to none, as I had hoped.  No heating either.  The next day I began the final in-water shaft alignment.  When I slid the shaft back a bit (uncoupled flanges), a steady stream of water began flowing from the packing - not just a few drips, but a steady stream.  I stopped it by tightening the packing nut.  This happened several times more (each time a steady stream) when I slid the shaft back as I went through the alignment process.  So now the nut is tighter than I would expect it shoud be, but there is no water leaking at rest.  I have not sea trialed it yet, and I am unsure what to expect when underway.  I suspect I will be redoing my packing job, but maybe this is normal?  Does the Gore packing leak more than flax when adjustment is needed? (is packing nut "tightness" more critical for Gore than for flax?) Has anybody excperienced anything like this before? 
Thanks ahead....
Bob

[Jim Price]

I did mine "in water" and had some leakage initially for first couple of times running the engine.  The Gore, like any thing else has to "seat" itself and needs to be used, get hot, compressed, etc.  Mine was only hand tightened initially and then only quarter turns while engine (and shaft running) until it got settled.  So far, no leakage for past year +.  I was initially disturbed because the first leakage left black residue stain under gland, but that seemed to just be the Gore graphite like material settling in and some "dust" washing out during break-in period.  You may have broken the "seal" each time you moved the shaft thus requiring additional tightening.  Also, there is the possibility that during the instaltion, the rings may have shifted and caused the cut ends to be more in line.  That would definitely lead to more aggressive leakage.   

[mainesail]

Hi All,

I had a bunch of folks ask what I use to insert the flax. I totally overlooked my custom made tool and have added three pictures of it and a description of how to make this tool to my "Re-Packing A Traditional Stuffing Box" article.

The link takes you directly to the enlarged first picture of the tool. To read the article and see more pictures click once in the picture and it should shrink it back to normal size so you can see the rest of the article.

Here's the link : http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/image/77332565



Maine Sail

[kerk fisher]

Great and useful article. Two questions:
1. What were the two extra cuts in the pvc packing tool for?
2. Two summers ago we had the stuffing box repacked while maintenance was being done on it. Sailing that summer and last summer (we only sail 2-3 months per year on the Great Lakes) I adjusted the drip to a couple of drips per minute. Recently I went through old receipts and noticed that they used Drip-Free packing. My question is do you think the dripping damaged the drip-free material, so that I need to repack? Or should I just tighten to a no-drip state and all will be well? Kerk

[mainesail]

Kerk,

The two cuts are to take a "notch" or about a third of the diameter of the 1 1/4 inch out of the PVC pipe so it can fit over the shaft (see picture above) without removing the coupling.

As far as I'm concerned there is no true dripless packing for a traditional stuffing box at least I've yet to see one that won't damage the shaft when run with no drips. While there is Drip-Less there is not dripfree. Even W.L. Gore does not say their flax is 100% drip free. I have used just about every packing known to man and the Gore is the best by a long shot but it still needs a little bit of water for lubrication and cooling! Below is a quote from their installation instructions. It's called "virtually drip-less" not drip free for a reason...

"After about one or two hours of running time, check the stuffing box for leakage, and make a final adjustment to attain minimum leakage."

If you want drip free you need a PSS other wise a few drops per minute should suffice..

[kerk fisher]

1. How did you get the "junk" out from between the shaft and the male nut?
2. Do you really think that whipping the ends of the gore with wax would be OK? The wax would be no problem?
3. I'm guessing that I need three rings of gore but just to make sure how far in do the rings sit in the packing nut? How can I tell when it's full?

Thanks, Kerk 1990, #1102

[Ted Pounds]

Kerk,
1. If by junk you're referring to the old packing use whatever you can get in there to dig it out, dental picks, bent awl, piece of coat hanger...  West marine sells a little 'corkscrew' like tool for the job.
2.  I don't think the wax would hurt it, but I see no need for it.
3.  You want three rings.  the joints should be staggered 120 degrees apart.  You don't need to tell if it's full - three rings is the exact ammount.

[Stu Jackson]

The Manuals section of the website can be found at www.c34.org, left hand side index.  The manuals are in pdf format.  http://www.c34.org/manuals/1988/1988-C34-Owners.pdf

Go to page 40 of 66.  It shows exactly how to do it.

Read the manual. Please.

Rod's great articles are extremely helpful in showing improvements and enhancements, and a picture is worth a thousand words, and you can also start with the basics from the manual and use all additional information as complimentary assistance, including the links in posts above.

The link to the Projects article says that the corkscrew tool from WM doesn't work, didn't then, won't now, because it is simply too big to fit into the space between the shaft and the nut.  It recommends dry wall screws and others have used dental tools successfully.

[Ted Pounds]

  Interesting...  The WM corkscrew worked for me.   

[Stu Jackson]

Maybe the "corkscrew" I bought way back was a 'standard' size and they maybe make a smaller one, but I sure haven't seen one.  Redid the stuffing box yesterday, the drywall screw advantage is: as you screw, the point end bottoms out inside the box and actually raises the old flax along the screw threads enough to get a hold of it, and to be able to easily remove it.  Just works for me, others have many different ways, so if it works for you, go for it.

I note that I am still using the "old green goop" from West Marine that I bought in 1998 or 1999.  I still have years of the stuff available.  My records show that I last did the stuffing box in 2001, 900 engine hours and 6 years ago, and found a healthy sized remnant of the green goop still intact inside the two rings of Teflon flax.  I am NOT proposing that one run out and buy the [expensive] green goop, since the e-marine Gore-Tex is probably much better and only became available after I wrote that FAQ, as well as the PSS method of resolving the issue, I'm just saying I wasn't far from wrong when I said in that stuffing box FAQ writeup that this stuff will last a long time if properly installed.

I'm tracing my wet bilge down to a leaking rudder stock fiberglass tube, based on Ron's excellent rudder stuffing box FAQ  http://www.c34.org/faq-pages/techdata-rudder-packing-gland.html.