Rudder and shaft Packing

[Mikey]

What does anyone know about this?

http://www.emarineinc.com/products/gfop ... cking.html

[Sean B]

Good for the shafts. Just don't get any CX on your shafts or glands, the GFO doesn't like it at all. Any oil causes the GFO to glaze over and leak. On my boat the CX I fogged things with creeped down one of my shafts and found the GFO. But keep oil away from it and it works great. Extremely little dripping or none at all, along with the simplicity of normal packing glands.

As for rudders, I've never been able to stop mine from leaking, but I've got something else going on, like scored rudder shafts. In the rudders I used one ring of regular, four rings of GFO in the middle, and topped it with a ring of regular packing. The GFO is soft and my rudder ports are not in great shape so I was worried about the GFO getting squeezed out. Hence the top & bottom flax packing.

Based on how well it works on the shafts, I have to think that if my rudder glands were in good shape they would be dripless too.

Just keep the CX away from them...

[Mikey]

Sean,
Thanks, think that's the ticket for old rudders.

[Sean B]

Sure.

One other tip: call them and ask for the price for the spool. I think I paid about $80 for a 25 foot spool of 1/4" GFO, vs. the published website price of $20 for two feet. Get the spool and you'll probably never need to buy packing again.

[Craig Mac]

i was told not to use the GFO on rudders only shafts--also thought my packing was leaking but after adjusting determined that the leak was from the base or the bedding ---needed to drop shaft and rebed the port.

[Sean B]

i was told not to use the GFO on rudders only shafts--

Are you sure you're not confusing that recommendation with the standard thoughts about rudders and teflon-based packing? Teflon is definitely no good for rudders, but the Gortex GFO is something entirely different.

I've never heard anything about not using it for rudders - why?