Undoing a packing gland nut

[Walt]

My packing gland on the shaft has started leaking badly - while at dock. I attempted to tighten the nut(and loosen it) without success. So tomorrow the yard will replace the packing.Can anyone tell me how to loosen that nut? I can see the threads on the male piece that comes out of the rubber hose. Then there is the nut that screws down on the threads. There may even be a second piece (nut) just aft of the main packing nut that has to be held while you turn the main nut. This is driving me nuts!Any help'll do.Walt walterts@aol.com

 

[Kevin McGrath]

packing nut

the packing nut has two pieces that thread on to the sections conected to the rubber hose. You need two wrenches to loosen the packing nut. I use a special large adjustable wrench sold as a packing nut wrench and a large pair of channel-lock-pliers. The piece near the shaft(packing nut) contains the packing, and turning this clockwise tightens the packing against the back of the packing assembly. the lock nut is then tightened to keep the packing nut from loosening. in order to have one less headache, every year I replace the packing when the boat is outof the water. The teflon packing works the best.

 

[Bob]

stuffing box

Join the club. I pretty much knew what to do on my 34 (including tapping the corners of the nut with a hammer, which is almost always necessary when the outer and inner nuts have "cemented" themselves together) and I still called the marina to do it because the damn thing wouldn't let go. I didn't have the exact right wrench and it was fighting me. Try getting it to drip right! I settled for No Drip as long as the stuffing box remained cool under large load. The guy from the marina took 3/4 hr (at $75 per hr) watching the drip when I told him to quit.