Stuffing Box

[marshbob]

I have a 1994 330 with 5.7l with v drives. I’m getting water in the bilge under the starboard engine, but the rest of the bilge is dry. I think that it’s from the stuffing box but I’m not sure. Does anyone know if the stuffing boxes are drip less or not? Are these serviceable? Does the engine have to come out to work on the stuffing box? Thanks for the help!

 

[electricaldoctor]

Stuffing boxes are not intended to be dripless, so a little water is normal. The engines do not have to be removed to adjust them or to replace the packing. Try doing a search for this and I am sure that you will glean some useful information.

 

[No Lines]

Some water is definitely normal. As for tightening/repacking them, I can wedge myself in far enough to tighten the packing nuts, but I absolutely cannot see how someone could get down there to repack them. I'm pretty sure an EC would be different given the engine room layout, but with v-drives, I honestly can't see it. I've heard of some people who have done it (or had it done in most cases) but it seems impossible to me. As far as I'm concerned the engines would have to come out.

 

[Captain Crispy]

With v-drives, it could be necessary to lift the engine to get enough access to the shaft packing gland to re-pack it. Haven't been on that boat so I can't say for sure.
If you can get to the nuts on the packing glands, try tightening them up a little. Don't tighten more than 1/2 turn at a time, though. Tighten 1/2 turn, then see if it helps the dripping. When you are sitting still in the water it should drip every few seconds at most.

If you have to replace the packing, use the newer synthetic gore-tex based shaft packing, with lots of the synthetic grease [called syn-tex, I believe]. I re-packed my shafts with it a couple weeks ago and it just doesn't drip. Went from Manasquan Inlet, NJ to Va Beach on 7/2 and it did not look like it dripped at ll the entire way. The synthetic will cost about 2x more, but it will last much longer than traditional flax packing and will drip less. It cost me about $60 for mine, which was two packages of the packing, and 2 tubes of grease for 1 1/2" shafts.

 

[Rum Runner]

There is a possibility you have dripless seals, if you do, these cannot be tightened. If a dripless seal is leaking, then you have an issue to deal with. I'm not saying "never" but you shouldn't have to move the engine to replace the packing or tighten the stuffing box nut. But, having the right tool will be very helpful. I believe this is simple called a stuffing box wrench. One can be picked up at West Coast Marine for about $10.00 I believe. You can probably pick one up at any marine supply dealer. The biggest thing is being able to twist you body into abnormal positions. Good Luck. R

 

[No Lines]

There is a possibility you have dripless seals, if you do, these cannot be tightened. If a dripless seal is leaking, then you have an issue to deal with. I'm not saying "never" but you shouldn't have to move the engine to replace the packing or tighten the stuffing box nut. But, having the right tool will be very helpful. I believe this is simple called a stuffing box wrench. One can be picked up at West Coast Marine for about $10.00 I believe. You can probably pick one up at any marine supply dealer. The biggest thing is being able to twist you body into abnormal positions. Good Luck. R

My experience with trying to find a stuffing box wrench was that you're going to have to get it online. The wrench WestMarine sells doesn't open wide enough, and most of the places I've looked online sell the same one. There is one online vendor (whose name escapes me) that sells a fixed wrench, but you'll need to measure the packing nut in order to order the right wrench. Even after that, you may find that the handle is too long and that you don't have enough clearance to turn it.

For better or worse, I ended up buying a locking oil filter wrench (like vise grips, but for an oil filter) and locking it around the packing nut. It was pretty easy to tighten the nut after that. Some people have talked about using a pipe wrench, my experience is that you'll never find one that will fit under the engine and that will open wide enough to fit around the nut.