Rudder Stuffing Box Again....

[Tree]

Morning All,

I suspect I know the answer to this but is it possible to replace the stuffing on the rudder gland while in the water?

One other thing that I have considered is fitting a grease nipple to the top of the adjustment nut, can flax stuffing and grease be mixed or is that a no no?

Pretty sure we have got a good leak on the rudder box, changing the stuffing or packing with grease will confirm if the leak is coming from there.

cheers

Lee

*edit 2000 28TE*

[jleonard]

I have replaced packing in both the shaft and rudder stuffing boxes while in the water. No sweat, the boat won't sink. Just have an assistant and all the tools and materials ready.
I also had to replace the wood backing plate in my "ex Mainship", as the majority of my leak was there. Obviously that was done out of the water.
Dry as a bone afterwards.
And yes, you can grease the packing gland. This has been discussed many times on boatdiesel.com

[Tree]

Many thanks for that, doing some research it appears that we can't get flax over here in the UK so we need to look at alternatives. Someone mentioned a goretex type material that once fitted, next to no maintenance is required.


We'll do the packing first, then if that doesn't work then we will fit a grease nipple to the top of the nut and pump it full of silicon grease

If only Albin had made the box three inches higher, we'd never have this problem!

[Tree]

Anyone have any experience with Gortex GFO packing? From what I have read, its a fit and forget packing gland material and almost seems too good to be true.

[Russell]

I have not used it myself but boaters on the Shamrock owners site claim that Gortex is the way to go for the propeller shaft. Supposedly it is so slick that you can tighten the gland down till there are no leaks and it will not get hot and damage the shaft or itself. You get a dripless shaft seal for very little expense. It should last almost forever on the rudder shaft. When I did my own last year I used the much cheaper teflon impregnated stuff and it works fine.

[C lectric]

I use the Gortex GFO on my shaft, 6 or 8 yrs now It is almost a dry fit. I deliberately don't tighten it enough to completely stop all water. However, it takes many hours of running to get a few cupsfull. Better yet i haven't had to redo it yet so I have a whole roll that I loan??? out to folks now an d again.,

For a rudder you could shut off the water completely.

[Tree]

I use the Gortex GFO on my shaft, 6 or 8 yrs now It is almost a dry fit. I deliberately don't tighten it enough to completely stop all water. However, it takes many hours of running to get a few cupsfull. Better yet i haven't had to redo it yet so I have a whole roll that I loan??? out to folks now an d again.,

For a rudder you could shut off the water completely.

Thats the plan, I've ordered some from the States now so hopefully it will be here next week.