Stuffing Box dripping

[Bob S]

I am concerned. I went to my boat last night to tighten the belt which has been slipping and check my alternator output. I noticed my stuffing box was dripping about 20 drops a minute without the shaft running.

I bought her last October. 1995 Catalina 30. The PO had taken a job out of state and she sat dry docked for 5 seasons. She was surveyed with all systems good to very good condition.

Do you think I can I tighten the nut a little or will this worsen the situation? I read Maine Sail's gallery and I'm afraid the flax is probably brittle.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Bob, that's a really unfair question

to lay on us! That said, my experience has been that when our boat was out of the water for over a month a few years ago I redid the stuffing. I know it's a bit of a squeeze to get to yours compared to ours, but it is worth doing. OTOH, loosen up the locking nut, tighten the gland by hand and see what happens, but run the boat in gear with the locking nut snugged up to assure you don't run hot. Your boat, your choice. Good luck.

 

[Bob S]

Thank you Stu

I plan on redoing it over this winter along with updating my battery situation. I am planning a week long trip and became concerned when I saw it dripping. I will try hand tightening to see if it helps.

 

[Rick I]

Replace the packing in the water

If your packing's shot just replace it in the water. Not difficult to do. Just wrap some bicycle inner tube rubber around the shaft log and you won't get any water in the boat.

 

[Ctskip]

Just getting to it is more difficult than actually adjusting it.

In or out of the water makes for very little difference. At most you will get maybe three gallons of water in the bilge. And that is working slowly. The boat will not sink even if you take the flax out and go to lunch. The bilge pump will eventually kick on and it'll be there when you come back from lunch. I wouldn't eat first though. You'll be that much fatter and you'll be needing all the room you can get. Just give it a 1 flat turn and watch. It'll slow down.
Keep it up,
Ctskip

 

[RichH]

You have no choice .....

20 drops per minute will equate to about 30 liters or ~7 gallons per day leakage; which is 'too risky' for a bilge pump to handle IMHO. 18 drops ~= 1 cc.

Tighten down on the packing gland until you get only ~2 drops per minute; then verify the drip rate at 1-2 drops per minute and engine turning the shaft and with the journal box running cool to 'just a wee bit warm'.

Since there IS water in the stuffing box, the old flax will become more or less 'softened' and will make the adjustment easier.

Suggest you replace the packing with GFO all-PTFE braided packing when you haul the boat. GFO is an inert material (teflon) and isnt subject to the 'cycles' that you get with a 'botanic' such as flax. You need a smoooooooth shaft surface to keep GFO running well; so, you might want to pull the shaft and inspect it. If 'rough' take it to a machinist to have the journal area 'dressed' back to smooth. Do this and you probably wont have any stuffing box problems for the rest of the boat's lifetime.

Be sure to use lock-nuts (2 nuts per screw) on the stuffing box. If you use 'Ny-lock', etc. nuts, expect the stuffing box compression (drip rate) to 'always' be changing as the Nylocks slowly turn on the screws due to vibration. This is NOT a good application for Ny-locks; yet, they are common on boat stuffing boxes. Always use TWO nuts on each stuffing box screw.

 

[johnrock]

Stuffing box...my best solution

Although stuffing boxs have been used for ever, I never trusted anything that was suposed to leak. Several years ago, on my Cal34, I replaced the stuffing box witha dripless unit, a PSS shaft seal. As I recall it was about $300, a bit expensive, but no more leaks and no more worries.