New packing gland
Dear George Paulsen, Thank you for your note. What you are describing about the adjustments of your packing gland are not unusual. In fact the frequent adjustments are suppose to take place in order to insure the proper function of a stuffing box. Each boat owner, I believe, has a tolerance of this procedure and some of us hit it sooner then others. In your case if the procedure of adjusting the units is bothersome, good maintenance free alternatives are available. Alternatives range from drip free packing to complete shaft seals. The drip free packing will utilize the existing packing gland. This still however requires some periodic adjusting. Mechanical shaft seals are available in numerous forms and configurations. Some utilize lip seals, which produce a seal around the shaft. Others, like mine, use what are called mechanical face seals. Mechanical face seals do not require the shaft to be in perfect or greater condition like lip seals to function. In either seal case the shaft will need to be removed from its coupling, old stuffing box removed and the new unit side down in its place. The style of unit, which I’m totally against, are units which use reserve oil as a medium for cooling and lubrication. As the seals begin to wear, which they do after a short period of time, it allows the oil to seep out of the unit into the stern tube and then out into the sea. I have heard of units like this using as much as a quart of cooling oil, transmission oil, in a matter of a few running hours. YUCK! Hope this helps. Kevin L. Woody
