I started to replace the packing in my Hunter 25.5, 1GM10 equipped boat and am having trouble getting to the old packing. The stuffing box is the plastic variety. There appears to be a plastic washer in board of the packing that I have not been able to move -- just too tight a fit to get a pick or other tool to get enough of a grab on anything to lever it out. I figured someone has found a secret to this problem before and thought it a good idea to ask for help instead of spending more hours raising blood pressure.
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packing
Bill, the "plastic washer" you are looking at is probably the old packing - remember it has been compressed in the stuffing box pretty well and will appear to have a hard shiny appearance from the pressure of the stuffing box nut. You can buy a corkscrew-like tool to dig it out or improvise. I find a 2 1/2 - 3" wood screw will work well. Screw it into the old packing and then use a pair of pliers to pull it out. If you are lucky it will all come out in one piece. If not - repeat the process. Good luck!
Bill, the "plastic washer" you are looking at is probably the old packing - remember it has been compressed in the stuffing box pretty well and will appear to have a hard shiny appearance from the pressure of the stuffing box nut. You can buy a corkscrew-like tool to dig it out or improvise. I find a 2 1/2 - 3" wood screw will work well. Screw it into the old packing and then use a pair of pliers to pull it out. If you are lucky it will all come out in one piece. If not - repeat the process. Good luck!
probably not-it's a washer
Lyle, most of the Hunter stuffing boxes have a washer-either plastic or brass-between the layers of packing. Bill, you need to dig it out carefully, either get the correct tool-looks like a corkscrew-or improvise (a real corkscrew??). try to remove the washer without damaging it too much
Lyle, most of the Hunter stuffing boxes have a washer-either plastic or brass-between the layers of packing. Bill, you need to dig it out carefully, either get the correct tool-looks like a corkscrew-or improvise (a real corkscrew??). try to remove the washer without damaging it too much
Your stuffing box
sounds like the OEM white nylon gland I had on my H28.5 (which I just replaced with a conventional bronze gland to avoid this and other issues associated with the OEM gland). The OEM gland actually has three compression washers separating two rings of packing material. The fore and aft washers are nylon or plastic and the one in the middle appears to be stainless. I found it impossible to get these washers out to repack the gland and I made a number of tools to try to do it. What may work if the boat is out of the water is to release the aft hose clamps on the log and push the whole gland forward as fast as possible, and then pull it back. That may, or may not, leave the packing material and washers exposed for repacking. My advice is to replace this gland with a better quality one, either bronze or a PSS dripless, and not have to worry about this poor design feature again.
sounds like the OEM white nylon gland I had on my H28.5 (which I just replaced with a conventional bronze gland to avoid this and other issues associated with the OEM gland). The OEM gland actually has three compression washers separating two rings of packing material. The fore and aft washers are nylon or plastic and the one in the middle appears to be stainless. I found it impossible to get these washers out to repack the gland and I made a number of tools to try to do it. What may work if the boat is out of the water is to release the aft hose clamps on the log and push the whole gland forward as fast as possible, and then pull it back. That may, or may not, leave the packing material and washers exposed for repacking. My advice is to replace this gland with a better quality one, either bronze or a PSS dripless, and not have to worry about this poor design feature again.
How bad is the inside ring of packing?
How badly was your stuffing box leaking? Consider one new ring of packing to replace the one you took out. Use the new teflon type. Then consider you options for five or ten years, which is when you'll need to deal with it again. DON'T change to a dripless seal unless you have really good insurance. (that ought to get things stirred up).
How badly was your stuffing box leaking? Consider one new ring of packing to replace the one you took out. Use the new teflon type. Then consider you options for five or ten years, which is when you'll need to deal with it again. DON'T change to a dripless seal unless you have really good insurance. (that ought to get things stirred up).
What learned
The packing was found to be only two rings separated by a stainless steel washer in this nylon stuffing box. A plastic washer was inboard the inboard packing ring. I was not able to tease out the plastic washer and, after detaching the compression nut from the main box body, finally detached the rubber tube from the boat stern tube, coaxed the entire box apparatus as far toward the engine as possible, and then coaxed the box complex back toward the original position. That moved the plastic washer forward in the stuffing box enough to get it out. I used a set of picks, a cork screw and a number of other items to tease the first ring of packing out, was able to bring out the stainless washer with the hep of a drywall screw (the washer is small enough to provide some room to manipulate it), and teased out the last ring. All the teasing took time and patience, but once the tools started to penetrate the packing material a little, a point occurred where the packing started to move. Once finished geting the old packing out, putting the new in was absolutely no problem. I used a flashlight and bounced light from a mirror to see inside the stuffing box from time to time. I expect the next time I will replace the old stuffing box with a PSS seal. The process of changing packing on a Hunter 25.5 was a little hard on this old man due to the contortions my body went through to get the job done.
The packing was found to be only two rings separated by a stainless steel washer in this nylon stuffing box. A plastic washer was inboard the inboard packing ring. I was not able to tease out the plastic washer and, after detaching the compression nut from the main box body, finally detached the rubber tube from the boat stern tube, coaxed the entire box apparatus as far toward the engine as possible, and then coaxed the box complex back toward the original position. That moved the plastic washer forward in the stuffing box enough to get it out. I used a set of picks, a cork screw and a number of other items to tease the first ring of packing out, was able to bring out the stainless washer with the hep of a drywall screw (the washer is small enough to provide some room to manipulate it), and teased out the last ring. All the teasing took time and patience, but once the tools started to penetrate the packing material a little, a point occurred where the packing started to move. Once finished geting the old packing out, putting the new in was absolutely no problem. I used a flashlight and bounced light from a mirror to see inside the stuffing box from time to time. I expect the next time I will replace the old stuffing box with a PSS seal. The process of changing packing on a Hunter 25.5 was a little hard on this old man due to the contortions my body went through to get the job done.
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