Packing Gland Issue

[Steve Olson]

When I bought my boat about three months ago (a 1986 Hunter 34), it was noted in the survey that the engine shaft packing gland was dripping excessively (about one or two drips every second). I brought it to the attention of a mechanic who tightened this. About two weeks later, while motoring, I suddenly noticed excessive vibration nosie (more obvious at certain RPM's than others). The packing gland is again dripping as it originally did. Would this be an issue with the cut less bearing? Did he possibly over-tighten the packing gland, causing excessive friction and heat? What is my next step? Am I able to use my boat in the meantime or does this require an immediate fix?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Steve, this is something you should learn to do, and it's pretty easy. Here's a link which includes a link to Maine Sail's writeup, too.

http://www.c34.org/wiki/index.php?title=Stuffing_box_packing

If yours is plastic, do a search here (upper right blue tab) on "plastic stuffing box".

 

[Fast Ed]

Steve,
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the vibration is probably not caused by your packing gland. There are a number of things that could be causing vibration. The first step is to tie the boat up real well, and run it in gear at the dock. Then you can poke around below, and attempt to determine the cause.

 

[richk]

Concur with Fast Ed. It may not be the packing gland. It might be the cutlass bearing, considering the excess vibration you note.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Your stuffing box packing is supposed to drip a little to help keep your shaft cool. It ends up in the bilge and your bilge pump removes it.

 

[smoothsailing]

I would replace the flax first. Buy yourself a cheap caliper set, like in HARBOR FREIGHT. Clean and measure the shaft where there is nothing attached.

Then measure the shaft where the flax was. Compare it to the first measurement.

If there is to much wear at the packing gland (MAINSAIL will give you the Tolerance that is acceptable), the shaft needs to be replaced.

Tightening down to much on the shaft will wear it down.

As Barnacle Bill stated, you should have some dripping to lube the shaft to prevent wear.

Follow MAINSAILS instructions on his pictorial guide. Its quite simple

 

[Benny17441]

The leading cause of vibration is old and soft motor mounts that fail to damper natural engine vibrations. They might look good and new but if they are not they would be suspects on my list. Adjust valve lash on the engine and verify engine and drive shaft alignment.

 

[Hunter voyager]

The cutlass bearing is in the P bracket near the propeller so unlikely to be an issue unless there is a huge amount of wear ( more than 1/8 inch)

The gland packing is probably the cause. I replaced the shaft seal on mine with a standard Volvo seal with no modifications but it has to be done with the boat out of the water. The seal is dripless and requires no maintenance except for a little grease once a year if you can be bothered. ( I havent and its still fine but must do it this year.)

 

[Steve Olson]

Would you consider the boat to be unusable until repair?