Stuffing Box

[fourreins]

I was considering repacking my stuffing box this winter once I am pulled form the water. I have owned the boat for eight years and not sure when they were done last. The starboard engine has a pretty steady drip at this point. I thought as long as I'm doing this I should consider changing the stuffing box hose. Am I correct the you should periodically change this hose? Another question would be how to remove the hose? Do you need to pull that shafts? Sounds difficult. Also, I have watched numerous videos on how to do this but my stuffing box looks different than most in the videos. I think mine is referred to as a gland type??? Does this change the job much..... Any feedback would be appreciated.

[larryeddington]

To change the stuffing box hose one needs to pull the coupler from end of shaft. Bob at Beacon calls it a light press fit, it is one SO### to get off. I used a KD bar puller and got mine off, and yes the hoses were deteriorated. Replaced both with dripless shaft seals. Now no drip and am a happy camper at least on the F28. My F36 has traditional gland type stuffing boxes. I wrote an article that is on this web site how I pulled the coupler. Remember once off then you also have to put the coupler back on (light press, bull). That said I heated the coupler to 350 in mammas oven, then with very thick gloves hurried to boat and it tapped right back on no strain at all, it has a key in it and you have to tap it until the setscrew dimples on the shaft are visible down thee wholes where the set screws go.

http://www.trojanboats.net/wforum/viewt ... ght=puller

If the boat is out of the water it might be a good time to renew the cutlass bearings as with out the coupler on the shaft is easy to take out the back. just thoughts.

[fourreins]

So if I'm lucky enough to get the coupling off does the shaft slide backwards at this point or will I have enough room to get the new hose on? The boat would be in the boat yard so I wouldn't have access to oven.... any other ides? Could you he the coupling with a torch? Can the old coupling be reused or is it better to replace that?

[larryeddington]

The shaft will slide back, in fact you have to slide it back to get the coupler off. The propeller most likely will hit the rudder and stop, careful of damage. If I were doing it would take off prop and coupler and slide out the back and again renew the cutlass bearing too. To do this much work and not does not make sense to me. I reused the coupler(s) no problem they were a press fit and I put them back on same shaft and marked the coupler bolt holes to put everything back as it came out.

There is a lot of noise about reusing couplers I vote if not damaged re used. People will also say to machine the front of the coupler to be sure of trueness, I did not.

That said if the shaft is out of the boat would be a good idea to check it for trueness.

As you can see this is a work intensive area and there are not easy solutions.

[davescarrs]

There is a topic and photos of the coupler removal at pbase website. I think it's under drip less shaft install maybe. Don't forget to mark the trans coupler holes and the shaft couplet holes so they line up as they were prior to removal. You want to reinstall so they butt together exactly as they were before. Otherwise you can get a wobble. I've done it. It's not rocket science, but is labor intensive.