As I've mentioned on this forum before, I'm not the most handy guy but owning a sailboat means doing a lot of maintenance yourself or paying a lot of money for someone else to do it. If the job gets too complicated I tend to bail out and pay for it...a good example is when I had a new RAM mic for my fixed-mount AIS VHF installed in the cockpit...the cable was so large that every wire had to be dropped out of the binnacle and then re-run after the RAM cable was installed...it took a professional 8 hours so I have no earthly idea how long and how much profanity it would have cost me. And I'm always in awe of @JK_Boston_Catalina310 (Jesse Krawiec's) projects, which I have neither the time nor the inclination to attempt.
Anyway, over the past two seasons the drip from the stuffing box has gotten more and more frequent...to the tune of a drop every second (or faster) while the boat is at rest. I'd tightened the nut to the point where I knew it was time to replace the packing material. I was not relishing this project, similar to the first time I changed the impeller in my Sherwood pump. For the impeller, I'd heard how nightmarish it was to get those bolts off the Sherwood because they are on the back-side of the pump. However, once I did it once (30+ minutes that time), I can now change that impeller in about 15 minutes, and most of that time is just getting those bolts off, one quarter-turn at a time.
This project was similar...I've been putting it off and putting it off because I thought it was going to be horrible but it turned out to not be that difficult. Of course, the boat isn't back in the water yet so I guess I'll know Sunday if I royally screwed it up or not.
This site has been mentioned a ton on this forum, but I followed the guidance from Maine Sail's Marine How-To site article on repacking a traditional stuffing box and that article was a huge, huge, huge help.
First, I knew I needed tools to get the old stuffing material out of the nut. I purchased this TEKTON 6943 Precision Pick and Hook Set, 4-Piece on Amazon and they worked perfectly, except for when I went to pick one of them up and drove a hook under my thumbnail...that sucked. Remember how I'm not that handy?
Second, I knew I needed the new stuffing material. Based on the article, I found what I needed at Hamilton Marine (a place I had not purchased from in the past), and even in the middle of COVID-19 and despite their pandemic shipping time warning on their web site, they shipped it out to me much faster than I anticipated.
The first step was to open up the nuts. As you can see, I've got that pale green outer layer (I believe called a patina) everywhere. I believe the patina protects the copper below the surface from further corrosion, but I am am incorrect or there is a problem in this area on my boat I am sure that folks here will let me know. ;-)
I have 2 giant wrenches that I am sure I overpaid for (again, from Amazon) but these things work, even if I have to do everything in a quarter-turn and then reposition the wrenches (just like with the impeller, except with much, much smaller wrenches).
It did take a little work, but I got the large nut slid up the shaft.
And using my tools purchased from Amazon had the old packing material out in less than 10 minutes. Note that there were 4 rings of material in there, which is the maximum the article recommends. Apparently 3 is optimal.
So following the instructions from the article, I went below the boat and used the shaft between the hull and the strut to measure and cut the new material (at the recommended 45 degree angle, with a brand new razor blade). I replaced the 4 rings with 3, as the article said you 'could' use 4 but 3 was optimal.
I then carefully inserted the material and used a flat head screwdriver to (carefully!) press the rings (one at a time) into the nut. I also used a sharpie to label where the cut was on each ring and staggered the cuts in the nut (again, a recommendation from the article). Then I re-screwed the nut back into place.
The job was not nearly as time-consuming or as difficult as I expected. It was less than an hour, start to finish. I was on the hard for this project, which made it easier as I didn't have to watch water flooding into the boat while feeling pressure to complete it as quickly as possible. But again, I won't really know how well I did until the boat goes back into the water on May 31.
I decided to post this article for two reasons...one, so people like me who are not naturals at this type of thing (I'm an IT Program Manager, for goodness sake) can see that even jobs with a reputation for being bears are doable. Second, I think I did everything correctly based on the article but if I made any errors detectable by this post /pictures then I'm sure this group will weigh in and let me know.
Anyway, over the past two seasons the drip from the stuffing box has gotten more and more frequent...to the tune of a drop every second (or faster) while the boat is at rest. I'd tightened the nut to the point where I knew it was time to replace the packing material. I was not relishing this project, similar to the first time I changed the impeller in my Sherwood pump. For the impeller, I'd heard how nightmarish it was to get those bolts off the Sherwood because they are on the back-side of the pump. However, once I did it once (30+ minutes that time), I can now change that impeller in about 15 minutes, and most of that time is just getting those bolts off, one quarter-turn at a time.
This project was similar...I've been putting it off and putting it off because I thought it was going to be horrible but it turned out to not be that difficult. Of course, the boat isn't back in the water yet so I guess I'll know Sunday if I royally screwed it up or not.
This site has been mentioned a ton on this forum, but I followed the guidance from Maine Sail's Marine How-To site article on repacking a traditional stuffing box and that article was a huge, huge, huge help.
First, I knew I needed tools to get the old stuffing material out of the nut. I purchased this TEKTON 6943 Precision Pick and Hook Set, 4-Piece on Amazon and they worked perfectly, except for when I went to pick one of them up and drove a hook under my thumbnail...that sucked. Remember how I'm not that handy?
Second, I knew I needed the new stuffing material. Based on the article, I found what I needed at Hamilton Marine (a place I had not purchased from in the past), and even in the middle of COVID-19 and despite their pandemic shipping time warning on their web site, they shipped it out to me much faster than I anticipated.
The first step was to open up the nuts. As you can see, I've got that pale green outer layer (I believe called a patina) everywhere. I believe the patina protects the copper below the surface from further corrosion, but I am am incorrect or there is a problem in this area on my boat I am sure that folks here will let me know. ;-)
I have 2 giant wrenches that I am sure I overpaid for (again, from Amazon) but these things work, even if I have to do everything in a quarter-turn and then reposition the wrenches (just like with the impeller, except with much, much smaller wrenches).
It did take a little work, but I got the large nut slid up the shaft.
And using my tools purchased from Amazon had the old packing material out in less than 10 minutes. Note that there were 4 rings of material in there, which is the maximum the article recommends. Apparently 3 is optimal.
So following the instructions from the article, I went below the boat and used the shaft between the hull and the strut to measure and cut the new material (at the recommended 45 degree angle, with a brand new razor blade). I replaced the 4 rings with 3, as the article said you 'could' use 4 but 3 was optimal.
I then carefully inserted the material and used a flat head screwdriver to (carefully!) press the rings (one at a time) into the nut. I also used a sharpie to label where the cut was on each ring and staggered the cuts in the nut (again, a recommendation from the article). Then I re-screwed the nut back into place.
The job was not nearly as time-consuming or as difficult as I expected. It was less than an hour, start to finish. I was on the hard for this project, which made it easier as I didn't have to watch water flooding into the boat while feeling pressure to complete it as quickly as possible. But again, I won't really know how well I did until the boat goes back into the water on May 31.
I decided to post this article for two reasons...one, so people like me who are not naturals at this type of thing (I'm an IT Program Manager, for goodness sake) can see that even jobs with a reputation for being bears are doable. Second, I think I did everything correctly based on the article but if I made any errors detectable by this post /pictures then I'm sure this group will weigh in and let me know.
