Well I have not been on here much of late because I have been spending much time on Silver Maiden. I got her moved the 4.5 miles from the marina to the yard and got her hauled for paint and stuffing box replacement.....There is the trouble.
Went for replacement of stuffing box rather than just repacking the 46 year old unit because it looked like crap with the amount of corrosion and the screws on the aft two hose clamps were mostly a pile of rust. In fact the heads crumbled when I tried to loosen them.
After getting the aft hose clamps cut off at their screws I discovered they did not want to budge. Eventually pulling the forward most stern tube hose clamp with a vice grip with a wiggle action got it out. It showed tell tail signs of having been stuck in glass matt and resin. I attempted the same on the aft most hose clamp and found it would not even wiggle. Feeling around, and an inspection with cell phone camera shows that the aft portion of the stuffing box has a small mass of mashed up glass matt and resin encasing it for about the aft 2 inches on the bottom 160 degrees. All attempts to pull the stuffing box hose free have failed.
I eventually sliced the stuffing box hose along the top from end to end after I could not even remove the bronze fitting after loosening the forward 2 hose clamps. Even with it splayed out wide I can not budge the remains of the stuffing box. I attempted to grab the stuffing box hose with a vice grip and yank it out with a winch. No joy.
At this point the yard has painted her bottom and if I do not get the stuffing box and depth sounder done soon I will have to start paying for dry storage....ICK.
My thought is that this is a manufacturing defect. I can see no reason for the stuffing box to be glassed into place.
My current plan of attack is a small vibrating tool with a cutting blade running parallel to the hull and close to the stuffing box hose on each side.
Has anyone run into this with their boat? Does anyone have a better idea?
I will upload some pictures shortly.
Went for replacement of stuffing box rather than just repacking the 46 year old unit because it looked like crap with the amount of corrosion and the screws on the aft two hose clamps were mostly a pile of rust. In fact the heads crumbled when I tried to loosen them.
After getting the aft hose clamps cut off at their screws I discovered they did not want to budge. Eventually pulling the forward most stern tube hose clamp with a vice grip with a wiggle action got it out. It showed tell tail signs of having been stuck in glass matt and resin. I attempted the same on the aft most hose clamp and found it would not even wiggle. Feeling around, and an inspection with cell phone camera shows that the aft portion of the stuffing box has a small mass of mashed up glass matt and resin encasing it for about the aft 2 inches on the bottom 160 degrees. All attempts to pull the stuffing box hose free have failed.
I eventually sliced the stuffing box hose along the top from end to end after I could not even remove the bronze fitting after loosening the forward 2 hose clamps. Even with it splayed out wide I can not budge the remains of the stuffing box. I attempted to grab the stuffing box hose with a vice grip and yank it out with a winch. No joy.
At this point the yard has painted her bottom and if I do not get the stuffing box and depth sounder done soon I will have to start paying for dry storage....ICK.
My thought is that this is a manufacturing defect. I can see no reason for the stuffing box to be glassed into place.
My current plan of attack is a small vibrating tool with a cutting blade running parallel to the hull and close to the stuffing box hose on each side.
Has anyone run into this with their boat? Does anyone have a better idea?
I will upload some pictures shortly.