bertram31.com

First of all, dont google the subject line. Chaos ensues. Trust me.
Had stuffing boxes repacked over the winter (flax). New shaft nut and lock nut are beefier than what was there previously. Shake down revealed heat enough to create steam from the water dripping through. Shaft was HOT.Drip, at rest, was actually one every five seconds so plenty of flow. Checked tolerances and noticed that shaft nut (brass) was actually against the shaft on one side. Yet to close of the excessive drip, I had to tightened it to achieve acceptable drip frequency and spare my bilge pumps and batteries. Any recommendations? Guy who did the work is coming out tomorrow to remove some of the packing and have a look see. Anything else I should ask him to consider?
Thanks.
1972 31 w gassers.
Stu

Change the Shaft nut.

I would check the alignment of the shaft/engine. When I bought my boat the motor mounts had lost their strength and the motors had dropped somewhat. One shaft was rubbing against the tube. I have dripless shaft seals but I am sure if I had packed seals my shafts would have been rubbing against the packing nut. If a new "beefier" nut was recently added it might have less clearance around the shaft and is rubbing now, but before with the old nut there was more clearance so there was no rubbing.

Kind of late, but sounds like one of several things...

Alignment thru the stuffing box is out.
Stuffing Box or Packing Gland Nut was machined off center.
Wrong size packing.

Let us know whats happening.

Carl

3yrs ago, i replaced pitted shafts and "while i was at it" i replaced the hose on the stuffing box. When i reinstalled everything the hose and stuffing box would not sealup right. I would tighten it to limit the dripping, and it would get hot (hot enough to steam), so i'd loosen it and it would cool down, but would leak badly. in the middle of all his "adjusting" i noticed there was bronze colored "glitter" on my hands, mixed in with all the water that was leaking in. ...so i figured that the hose/stuffing box was not aligned correctly (at least not aligned like it WAS before i decided to replace it). I loosened the hose clamps and twisted the hose/box and basincally farted around with it until i got it reasonably close and was able to run reasonably cool. I took probably 20 hours of running until the stuffing boxes would run completely cool with minimal dripping - soooo...

i'm guessing that some part of your stuffing box / or nut is rubbing on the shaft, making heat. I would bet that over time the shaft will wear the nut down to make a better seal - ...but this should not really be necessary - if the shaft goes through the middle of the tube and stuffing box is squarely mounted on the tube, the clearance should be enough to make this an easy thing. If your just trying to "go fishin", i'd spend some time fartin around with it trying to get it right...and running it around as much as you can to get it "settled'. ...but, if you really want to address the issue, start with making sure the shaft goes through the middle of the tube (with means making sure the engine is aligned)

whatever you do, keep an eye on it - if you run it too hot, for too long, i'd imagine you could damage the hose and or shaft...either of thsoe would not be too cool

Joe