Waterlogged Nightmare: How NOT To Repack Your Stuffing Box | SV Ramble On

[@dsanderson6949]

It's good to watch a real boater doing it with real troubles rather than some fella on a bench in a warehouse. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[@svrambleon]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@ketchingmy2ndwindsvchopsticks]

Great cliff hanger!!! I couldn’t wait to see part 2!! 🧐😬😳😎🤙

[@darrenjordan2459]

Honestly the best video I've seen in a while. Was thinking of doing this myself and this did everything to dissuade me. THANKS!

[@svrambleon]

Glad it was helpful for you!

[@glenphillips7222]

Way too much drama for me! Thanks for reminding me why I've always been petrified of repacking in the water. Great channel!

[@svrambleon]

Thanks for watching Glen.

[@guineapigzed]

Best show I’ve ever seen. I repacked mine, hardly hard any water Come in.

[@simonroyle2806]

In my 20s I had a new narrowboat shell (in the UK) built which I lived on and fitted out. When I bought it I couldnt afford the prop shaft so just had the stern tube fitted and then hammered some wood in from the inside to block it. Later on I got the propshaft and had a prop machined on, we hung it on some rope and sledge hammered it in from the outside forcing the wood out. So had that initial leaking drama but I dont recall any issues getting the stuffing to seal it. I had the boat 5 years afterwards and it didnt leak a drop.

[@cosmalas7742]

That's enough excitement for one day for me...... you have completely put me off re packing mine. Strangely your sailing boat has a similar set up as my canal boat, except for the "redundant" bilge pumps

[@phallo153]

I kept one of those metal hanging vegetable baskets on my boat just for adding zincs underwater... hooked it onto the shaft so the basket would catch the half of the zinc I'd inevitably drop :)

[@svrambleon]

I like that, that's a great idea!!

[@markbuskens6070]

That was good entertainment and a lil comedy 😂😂.First mistake was ordering the black packing,second you know it took 1/4 but you cautiously ordered 3/16???????why???Third you don’t take it all out especially if it has 7 pieces!!4 is there is a scoop on the outside to let water in you didn’t plug that.5 you aways get 2 sizes of packing if you’re not sure what size to get.I would say the only thing you did correctly was removing the old packing but you screwed that up by taking it all out 😮So you did get the title for this video right 😂😂I’m still laughing 😆 🤣🤣🤣

[@audentesfortunailuvat]

"I can't get it stop..." dear lord what a conundrum!

[@bajatrawler7325]

Rich, couldn't tell from the video, but do you have intake holes on the forward end of the cutlass bearing housing? My bearing housing has 2 of the these holes, on opposite sides, each about 1/2" square, where water is sucked into the housing due to forward motion. Probably to provide flow through the bearing. Plugging those holes would stop water ingress.

[@svrambleon]

Thanks Baja. I looked back at our old haul-out pics and video and couldn't see any weep holes on the bearing housing, and don't remember seeing or feeling any when I was down there with a snorkel. Doesn't mean they're not there though. I need to give this bottom a good scrubbing anyway, so I'll give a look-see when I'm down there.

[@theislandpackrat]

I would have just did 4 of them then the others would still work if there big enough. The first boat I had back in the 70's I forgot to pack it till it was in the water and no packing so I used the seam on the bottom of a tee-shirt wrapped it around four times then did it again, Worked great still in the boat four years later when I sold it! It looked like yours was to small or won't compress enough!

[@svrambleon]

Yep, the 3/16" material was too small and had to order 1 size larger.

[@MichaelMechsner]

You may have explained this, but why did you decide to replace the stuffing (it looked like it was holding out the water) while the boat was in the water, rather than on your next haul out?

[@svrambleon]

Yeah, Jeni wrote it in the description. Every time we motor, the stuffing box leaks more than it should and I have to keep tightening it down more than the last time to control the drip. The stuffing box was also running hotter than it should under normal drip rate, which is an indicator that the packing material is past its prime. At some point I was going to run out of adjustment depth on the collar, and we're not planning to haul-out again until this time next year.

[@MichaelMechsner]

Thanks for the quick reply! Looking forward to the continued saga!

[@willrupley2253]

WARNING ! DO NOT USE GRAPHITE PACKING . . This is from both Sail magazine book "Boat Works" and Nigel Calder "Mechanical and Electrical Manual . The reason is that Graphite is at the top of the Galvanic scale . This will cause corrosion in adjacent metal when in saltwater . I found Graphite packing in my my Tayana 37 and corrosion on the shaft is apparent . I have seen Graphite recommended on other KZbin videos . Nigel Calder recommends a drip-free packing called PTFE made of shredded Teflon. It's a clay like material that you use between the standard packing rings . I have not tried this myself but I will the next time I haul out . I'm not brave enough to do it in the water .

[@svrambleon]

Thanks Will. It looks like we may need to pull the shaft and get a longer one fabricated when we re-power with the new Beta 43, so I'll definitely look into the PTFE stuffing.

[@matthewbowman9153]

You didn't put enough packing back in, the metal piece that forces them in should be away from the gland so in future you can retighten it to stop any leaks.

[@tjruiall]

Actually if had gotten the correct size that it calls for it would have been just fine. You can’t cheat the boat !! The waters will win every time

[@murphmurph2124]

Scary

[@svlonestar7645]

I get it thanks

[@stevengross4113]

WARNING! do not use graphite due to galvanic corrosion

[@svrambleon]

That’s an interesting theory we’re still researching, but we packed the stuffing box with GFO 3 years ago, and when we took our shaft to Bay Propeller this April they said we were good to go for many years to come. Guess it all depends on your bonding system.

[@stanleybest8833]

I've decided no fiber packing. What a brine mess. String? Human hair? It's still going to drip.

[@erents1]

Yikes

[@svrambleon]

It was a bit scary for sure!!