[C38] Dry Packing

[Tom T.]

Hello Kerry,

I bet you could install new shaft packing if you want.  You should have
about an inch of space between the packing nut and the flex coupling on
your shaft.  If you don't have this much shaft showing, your shaft seal may
be too far forward.  See if you can slide the shaft seal aft on the bellows
or the bellows aft on the shaft log or both to give the room you need to
install the new packing material.

It takes very little room to unscrew the packing nut to slide the packing
nut forward to remove the old packing and install the new Teflon type GFO
material. Water will come past the shaft and shaft seal housing but not
enough to become a problem unless you decide to make this simple job a long
project.  Since the packing nut is still captive on the shaft you could
always reinsert the nut with the old packing if you need to take an
emergency break but if you start with the proper wrenches and razor blade,
the whole operation only takes a few minutes.

The new packing is cut into strips long enough to wrap around the seal
housing plus a little extra.  I think it took three of these strips to fill
my packing housing.  Rotate each strip 120 degrees from the last strip so
the ends don't line up together which helps seal the material to the
housing.  Do not be tempted to wrap the strip in one long "candy cane"
because it won't seal as well as individual parallel strips.

It's been about 6 years since I upgraded to GFO packing and since the
break-in adjustment to the packing nut, the packing leaks much less than
the original graphite type packing.  GFO isn't as dry as a true dripless
seal but it is cheaper, easier to install, and more reliable.  I couldn't
be happier with this stuff.  For practical purposes it is a dry packing.

Tom Troncalli
Renata hull #95





> [Original Message]
> From: Kerry Grimes <littlebreeze at comcast.net>
> To: <larrypi at linkline.com>; Catalina 38 Listserve
<listserve at catalina38.org>
> Date: 6/5/2008 11:15:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [C38] Dry Packing
>
> Larry
>
> Do you have to pull the boat to replace the packing or can you do it in 
> the water. In my boat there does not appear to be enough room to remove 
> the gland nut to get to the packing material so I'll wait for my next 
> haul out this winter.
>
> Kerry Grimes
> Littlebreeze
>
> Larry Malmberg wrote:
> >
> > WOW, after reading the article sent to us by Steve maybe I made a good 
> > choice by trying new packing instead of a dripless bearing, here is 
> > the site for GFO
> >
> > http://www.emarineinc.com/products/gfopacking/packing.html
> >
> > We’ll see how good it is.
> >
> >
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Larry Malmberg-Hassle
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
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