A27 Stuffing Box

[don123]

Since I have the engine out, I thought it would be a good idea to pull the shaft, check it for trueness, clean it up and either replace or rebuild the stuffing box - I initially thought about maybe going to a dripless shaft seal

What do you use to adjust the current stuffing box? A huge bronze locknut keeps the adjusting cap from moving and there's no room in there for any sort of wrench that I own. Is there a special Albin tool for this that my boat didn't come with?

With the engine out, I have all the room I'll ever have, so I need to get this all sorted out before the installation. What material does everybody use in the box? The standard stuff, or the newer high tech packing?

Maybe I just need to build a tool for the adjusting nuts - I'm going to have to be able to make adjustments later on when the engine is in the way. Anybody know the exact dimensions of that nut?

Don

[joe.baar]

Don,
We have a 28TE so our situation might be different from yours. If you could post photos here it would be helpful as well. That said, when we had our shaft re-packed the mechanic used what I *think* is called a "breaker bar" to loosen the nuts. They have rounded knobs around their circumferences and the bar he used had a hexagonal cross-section, was black, about a foot and a half long with one pointy end and one chiselly end. The mechanic just sort of laid the chisel end in between two of the stop nut's knobs and tapped it lightly to loosen, then unscrewed it the rest of the way by hand. The nut shouldn't be too tight. After that, you'll find an extraction tool for the packing - it's like a corkscrew on a flex shaft - in any catalog. If I remember right they used some PTFE Gore-Tex 3/8" material to re-pack, but you'd need to check what came out of your gland for sizing.

I believe the original gland and shaft log are still carried by Buck-Algonquin, at least for the 28TE. Good luck.

[RobS]

When you bring the shaft to the machine shop you should have them fit & face a new coupler to the shaft.

[Panhdjoe]

When I adjust the prop shaft packing on my 1984 family cruiser I use a regular adjustable packing nut wrench that I bought at West Marine and medium large Chanelock pliers. The angles are a bit tight but I have always been able the get a good adjustment and sung the locking nut. When I tighten the locking nut it tends to change the adjustment some so a little trial and error is involved. Joe

[don123]

Appreciate all the replies - Thanks!

I got the locknut loosened with a 2 pound hammer and a punch. Once I got it off, it's pretty evident that this was the same method used to adjust it several times. Lots of punch marks on the locknut. I'm going to make me a stubby 'wrench' out of 1/2 inch steel to fit the 2 1/2 inch locknut which will have a flat spot on it that I can tap with a hammer - Should make stuffing box adjustments much easier to do in the confined little 'box' it's located in

This is a very different stuffing box than any I've ran into before. I'm used to it being attached to the stern tube with a short length of heavy hose, so that it can self align to the moving shaft. On this boat, it's a huge chunk of bronze bolted to the aft bulkhead with 4 large bolts - No lateral movement possible in any direction. The inner diameter of the tube is maybe 1.5 inches and the shaft is 1.25, so it's a close tolerance. I don't see any way I could fit a dripless shaft seal with it's flexible bellows to this arrangement - The shaft would be constantly banging against the inside of the tube. It's going to be very interesting to see how this works out with the new Yanmar with it's semi-flexible motor mounts - The old 4D61's mounts were solid as a rock with no movement possible

I realize it's probably proper procedure to have a machinist install the coupling to the shaft and then true the face of the coupling . . . . but having done this half a dozen times on several other boats, I've never had that done and it's never come back to bite me. I am going to install a 1 inch thick DriveSaver between the shaft coupling and the transmission flange and they can live with things a couple thousandths out of tolerance. No question the Yanmar is going to move around just a bit and something will have to account for that movement

My experiences with West Marine? If they sell it, you can almost always buy it elsewhere for half. Last month I bought a 1 foot piece of 1 inch wire exhaust hose to plumb in a new raw water strainer. I paid $12.76 for the hose because West is about 8 miles closer than our local chandlery. When I went there (later that same day, because West did not have the brass keystock I also needed) I took the hose in just to see how badly I'd been scalped. My local guy sells the exact same brand hose for $4.50 per foot, so I paid nearly triple at West. I told him he needs a sign for the side of the building - "We make boating more affordable!"

The project continues - Sometimes one step forward and two steps back, but after 8 years sitting in the shed, at least there's some movement towards getting it running and into the water!

Don

[Don from Mystic]

Hi Don,
I have the same set up as you. A "real treat" to adjust. Initially, I bought a cheap "slip nut" plumbers wrench, opened it to fit and welded it to maintain the size. Worked ok but I found a better solution with a crows foot (box style, not open end, just clears the shaft OD w/o modification) which you can use a 1/2 drive extension/socket wrench with. I found a snap-on crows ft on ebay and won it fairly cheap (it's on the boat - I can ck the size if you still need it). The jam nut will require a punch/chisel to tighten it or at least it does on mine, the adjustment will loosen and it will drip. My shaft tube is also fed with water from the engine, I have one of the first F/C's built so not sure if it's typical. It also has a drive saver (and I still have to face off/shorten my shaft zincs in a lathe to fit) I do have a dripless seal ready to install but it wont be this year. I use the "newer" style of packing (Defenders sells it). Best wishes - you may have a project there but at least you will end up with a gem of a boat.

[don123]

Thanks for the suggestion on using a crow's foot wrench, Don - I'd never thought of that

I believe the size for the packing nut is 2 1/2" and the lock nut is 2 3/4"

Do you recall what size packing you ordered from Defender? 1/4 inch or maybe 5/16ths?

I'll keep an eye out and see what I can find. I *think* I might be able to set the locknut with a crow's foot as well, using a hammer to tap it. We'll see

Don