hi, has any one repacked the stuffing box while in the water. seems like theres not enough room too slide the nut on shaft for access without hitting the fiberglass rib. thanks
stuffing box service
- Thread starter alans
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I'd note that the boat being in or out of the water will not move the fiberglass rib!
You can repack the gland while in the water if you have a bilge pump that you can keep running the whole time. I'm thinking an hour would be sufficient if you don't run into "issues"
you only need about an inch of clearance if you have a good dental pick with an 90 degree angle at the end. The pick is to get the old packing out of the gland. That is the part that will take the longest. Once the nut is clean putting in the new packing is a snap.
You can repack the gland while in the water if you have a bilge pump that you can keep running the whole time. I'm thinking an hour would be sufficient if you don't run into "issues"
you only need about an inch of clearance if you have a good dental pick with an 90 degree angle at the end. The pick is to get the old packing out of the gland. That is the part that will take the longest. Once the nut is clean putting in the new packing is a snap.
I've also used an old hacksaw blade that I modify with a pair of tin snips instead of a dental pick
We Seem to Have the same Boat .................
As for packing in the water, it's the only way I do mine every four or five years as I'm too cheap to do it on the hard (at $40.00/day). The photo shows how to spend all day on the job and not take on a drop of water.
................... so there should be enough room for the nut to clear that FG rib. See attached.
As for packing in the water, it's the only way I do mine every four or five years as I'm too cheap to do it on the hard (at $40.00/day). The photo shows how to spend all day on the job and not take on a drop of water.
Brilliant. I've copied this to my "How to" file. We're on the hard half the year here, but if I ever need to repack my stuffing box in-water, I know how to do it now.
Don't want to side track the thread, but I'm curious about something else in the photo. Is the bronze pipe next to the cleat part of a fire suppression system? Why is there an access port into an adjacent compartment?
The bronze fitting you see is a hose bib which leads to the strainer side of the raw water pump to the Yanmar 2GM20F. Its intended purpose is as an auxiliary bilge pump pump for those days when the regular bilge pump just won't keep your socks dry. I've never used it yet (and hope I never do) as a backup to the bilge pump but use it every winter to suck up antifreeze into the engine raw water system.
As far as the "access port" goes, never did figure out its purpose
.Attachments
Hunter told me the ports were actually lifting fittings used touring building of the boat. They are under the engine mounts in my 30t. I also added a similar hose bib for sucking in antifreeze to winterize and for freshwater flushes when the engine will be sitting for more than a few weeks.
Alan
I have the same rib problem on my 310, that stops the nut being pulled back to repack. Did you ever find a solution ?
I've unbolted the rear engine mounts to try and lift the back of the engine up to get a bit of clearance but still not enough.
Next will be to simply hack at it but I'd prefer not to
Mark
Hunter 310 packing / stuffing box rib clearance
Water from the box dribbles out (eg no chance of a flood to sink the boat). Note mine gets a lot of slime buildup so maybe that acts as a stopper anyway) so no bit deal / your bilge pump should be able to cope otherwise you have another problem to fix anyway. Mine never even started.
All up a 1 to 2 hour job, including re tightening the engine mounts.
For those interested, by loosening the top nuts on all the engine mounts (4 off) (eg just the top ones so you do not change the alignment too much) and using a claw hammer / jenny bar, you can "lift" the engine and the shaft by around 1/2 inch, which is just enough to unscrew the packing nut and rotating it to the flat part, pull it thru to fit the new packing. Its a bit tight so maybe you might have to also "trim" the fiberglass on the rib.
Water from the box dribbles out (eg no chance of a flood to sink the boat). Note mine gets a lot of slime buildup so maybe that acts as a stopper anyway) so no bit deal / your bilge pump should be able to cope otherwise you have another problem to fix anyway
. Mine never even started.All up a 1 to 2 hour job, including re tightening the engine mounts.