[C38] Mysterious stuffing box behavior

[Marci Brown]

A troubling stuffing box situation began last week (and continues): We ran
the engine reasonably hard for about 4 hours when doing the NYC East River
trek to Long Island Sound. I was in the galley when Keith raised the sails
and cut the engine (leaving transmission in neutral). Immediately I heard
water pouring into the boat from the stuffing box area. I shouted for Keith
to throw the transmission into reverse. No more water! Whew! Water quickly
exited the boat via bilge pump - with the exception of 10 gallons sitting
under the engine that I had to pump out by hand. Diagnostic guesstimate #1:
New zincs on the prop shaft causing wobble that is stressing the 2-year old
flax packing gland... right? The cutlass bearing is fine. Other thoughts:
Folding prop has inherent balance issues, engine/transmission/prop shaft
alignment fine tuning necessary, packing glands wear out quickly under
stress?? Would anyone like to tackle this one?
 
Marci J. Brown
PO Box 520549, Winthrop, MA 02152 USA
Ph: 757-515-3151 | Email:  <mailto:mb at seafor.us> mb at seafor.us


 
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://catalina38.org/pipermail/listserve_catalina38.org/attachments/20110518/8794373d/attachment-0001.htm>