Rudder stuffing box conversion to Tides

[boatruptcy]

Has anyone converted their packing gland and lock nut to a tides seal for the rudder? I just pulled mine yesterday and have some scoring on rudder post so not sure if it will seal well. My packing nut had 2 original wraps and looks like another 3 were added at some time so I'm thinking the Tides nut will thread further onto the rudder post and catch on clean, non-scored metal.

My setup does not have a rudder collar, so the only thing keeping the rudder from falling out is the pressure of the packing nut, whatever weight the rudder shoe can carry and the tiller arm if those two were to fail. I don't think I have enough rudder post to put a collar and shelf on, could you just put the collar between the tides and the tiller or would that harm the seal if the weight of the rudder was pulling down on top of tides seal?