Packing Gland---Hat's off to Mainesail

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Bad Obsession

Bad Obsession

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May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
I recently re-packed my packing gland. While I was checking into how to do this I found the process a little intimidating. Once I found this information written by Mainesail I went ahead and did the job myself.

The packing material had been in my boat for a long time. It was in horrible shape. The worst part of the job was removing the old material. I also had to clean my shaft off a little as I have a bronze shaft.

Hats off to Mainesail for this one. The article is EXTREMELY helpful, informative, and well written. The photographs are excellent as well. I made the same tool that made but mine was out of 1" PVC pipe and it worked really well. I think that I would trim 1/2 inch off of the length for my boat (Catalina 30).

Good Job Mainesail!! Thank you!

Anyone thinking of paying someone to do this job should check this out or anyone that is going to do this job should check it out. It isn't nearly as bad as one would think.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/stuffing_box&page=2
 
BobM

BobM

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Jun 10, 2004
3,269
S2 9.2A Winthrop, MA
Good job. Keep an eye on it, as it will need to be adjusted once its in the water and after its broken in a little.
 
Bad Obsession

Bad Obsession

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May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
No worries...I am all set for that. I put the GFO packing into it too so that should help.
 
shemandr

shemandr

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Jan 1, 2006
7,488
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
Ditto to the hat's off. I just made a new folder named MaineSail.
I also just learned how carelessly I did mine (Still better than what was in there!). 45degrees? You don't even want to know:eek:. So, I guess I'll do it again - the right way.
 
Warren Milberg

Warren Milberg

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Dec 1, 1999
2,391
Hunter 28.5 Chesapeake Bay
If you re-pack your gland with your boat on the hard, like I did this past winter, it is a good idea to get on your boat and check the gland as soon as your boat is launched. While I thought my repacked gland had been more than adequately tightened while the boat was on the hard, I found the gland leaked far too much once the boat hit the water. I also found that it took about two sails, comprising about two hours of engine run time with the engine in gear and subsequent gland adjustment, to wear-in the GFO material to obtain the desired minimal-to-no drip rate I wanted for the gland.
 
Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

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Feb 26, 2004
23,003
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Warren, that's one reason why many of us contend that it CAN be done in the water. Or, it need NOT, ONLY, be done on land, because the amount of water that enters is minimal. If there is concern, stuff a rag in it or tape a plastic bag over it and whittle away at your old stuffing.
 
Bad Obsession

Bad Obsession

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May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
I am in the water and floating still. I checked the packing gland on the way back to the dock and it is breaking in fine. Life is good!
 
Maine Sail

Maine Sail

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Feb 6, 1998
11,701
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
Stu Jackson said:
Warren, that's one reason why many of us contend that it CAN be done in the water. Or, it need NOT, ONLY, be done on land, because the amount of water that enters is minimal. If there is concern, stuff a rag in it or tape a plastic bag over it and whittle away at your old stuffing.
Click to expand

Stu,

Unfortunately you are applying this only to your own experiences which are perhaps limited to a few vessels. Having re-packed many packing glands, on all types of vessels, power and sail, in the water, all I can say is, not all stuffing boxes, clearances and access are built the same and some let in a LOT of water when compared to others. Some are easy some a PITA.

Try doing some of the older CCA designed full keelers, in water, and you'll see how and why doing it on the hard is both easier and safer in many instances. Some of these boxes are down in a keel sump that is as long as your arms are and you're already upside down...:doh:This is why the Cape Dory stuffing boxes have nubs on the nuts, and special wrenches, as opposed to wrench flats. You don't even have enough room to turn the nuts using wrench flats so you need lots of nubs.....
 
sailingdog

sailingdog

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Oct 22, 2008
3,502
- Telstar 28 Buzzards Bay
I'd point out that whether you can do this on the water or not has a lot to do with how good the physical access to the packing gland is.

On one friend's boat, the packing gland is almost inaccessible, and I'd hate try replacing the packing with the boat in the water, since you basically have to be lying down in the bilget to access it...and the water coming through the gland would be spraying in your face—which would make it a lot more challenging to do.
 
Prime Time

Prime Time

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Sep 25, 2008
544
Bristol 43.3 Perth Amboy
Clearance

Another important issue is how much exposed shaft you have when the stuffing box is openned up. The set-up on my old Mirage was such that you only had a half an inch which made it difficult to do in the water. I ended up shortenning the hose on the shaft log to make it easier.
 
Bad Obsession

Bad Obsession

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May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
I wouldn't want to do this operation in the water. There are other things to think about such as the fact that when I did my packing gland my shaft had to be cleaned up and I didn't realize this until I started trying to get the nut off of it. I had a lot of extra work and it took a few hours to do this job right. It would have been much harder to do because of access issues and the pressure of water leaking in would have been a lot to think about.

Unless you have a clean shaft, clean threads, and you have done this before, I would highly suggest doing it on land. I would never advocate doing this in the water knowing what it took to get mine done.
 
Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

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Feb 26, 2004
23,003
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Maine Sail's right again. I have wonderful, tremendous, easy, clear, open access to my stuffing box. All of you should be so lucky. The stuffing box link I often provide also includes a link to Maine Sail's site.
 
F

funjohnson

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Apr 6, 2009
5
2 240 Muskegon MI
How to you measure the size of packing gland material? I see it's available in 3/8th", 5/16th", 1/4th", 7/16th".... etc. Is it based on the shaft size (1")? Is there some other way to easily figure this out?
 
Bad Obsession

Bad Obsession

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May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
Measure what comes out of the box. Buy all three and then take the two back that don't work!
 
sailingdog

sailingdog

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Oct 22, 2008
3,502
- Telstar 28 Buzzards Bay
Measure the shaft size. Measure the diameter of the packing gland... subtract shaft from diameter of packing gland, and divide by TWO.

funjohnson said:
How to you measure the size of packing gland material? I see it's available in 3/8th", 5/16th", 1/4th", 7/16th".... etc. Is it based on the shaft size (1")? Is there some other way to easily figure this out?
Click to expand
 
kenn

kenn

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Apr 18, 2009
1,271
CL Sandpiper 565 Toronto
Bad Obsession said:
I wouldn't want to do this operation in the water. ...

Unless you have a clean shaft, clean threads, and you have done this before, I would highly suggest doing it on land. I would never advocate doing this in the water knowing what it took to get mine done.
Click to expand
A professional I know says that if you're on the water and have excessive dripping, you can replace just one of the 3 rings of packing (leaving the other two alone) , which means minimal water ingress while working on it, and this will improve things til you can change all the packing later.
 
Bob S

Bob S

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Sep 27, 2007
1,797
Beneteau 393 New Bedford, MA
Measure the shaft size. Measure the diameter of the packing gland... subtract shaft from diameter of packing gland, and divide by TWO.
Click to expand
sailingdog,

That is what you should do but I was reading a thread on a Yahoo group. More than a few owners where having a problem. It turned out the 1/4" GFO packing they bought from emarine measured .290 thick. Don't you just love boating.
 
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