Shaft packing nut keeps backing off

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Juice6576

Juice6576

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May 10, 2004
254
Hunter MH 37 Manitowoc, WI
OK, so we are having our first little glitch. The packing gland nut keeps backing off. I reset it again last night after a short sail. I tighted the nut hand tight and backed it off a half turn and snugged up the locking nut again.
Anybody else have this problem?
 
Roy10289

Roy10289

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Oct 13, 2007
179
Hunter 37.5 Plattsburgh
You probably are doing this already,but when you tighten the lock nut do you only hand tighten or do you use 2 wrenches? One to hold the lock nut and one to keep the adjustment you made on the packing nut?
 
S

Steve Dion

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Dec 2, 1999
15,184
Hunter Vision-36 Rio Vista, CA.
If you have a nylon packing nut there should be a hole in the two nuts where you can use a cotter pin.

If you have metal packing nut, I would suggest that you snug them up with two wrenches.
 
Scott B

Scott B

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Sep 20, 2006
2,952
Hunter 33 Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada
Steve, they are both metal.

Juice, I've not had any problems with mine. Are you using 2 wrenches as Roy suggested.
 
Roger Long

Roger Long

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Nov 22, 2008
3,562
Endeavour 32 Portland, Maine
Check your engine alignment. Another thing to check is if the stuffing box nut is getting hot when your run for a while. It could be that the shaft is bearing hard on the nut and the friction is unscrewing it. Boats have sunk this way.
 
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Benny17441

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May 24, 2004
7,164
CC 30 South Florida
Yes it sounds like if you are only tightening only by hand that the nut will back off. Hand tighening and backing off procedure is just to get the proper clearance but the you need to tighten the lock nut against it. That is why the use of two wrenches is necessary. You hold the wrench on the nut steady to hold clearance and then tighten the lock nut against it with some force using the second wrench. It is the tight friction and compression that will hold the nut in place.
 
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