Stuffing box packing size 1989 e-38-200

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oceandreams89

Member II
Hi everyone. This spring I had decided to replace the cutlass bearing on my 1989 E38-200, the job required removing the shaft to cut the old bearing out of the strut. I figured that was a good time to repack the stuffing box, which had not been done for nearly 10 years (old packing was the Gore stuff and was working great). I replaced the rubber hose and SS hose clamps at the same time.

The problem I'm having is this...

When I repacked the stuffing box the yard guy and I looked at the old and it seemed to be 1/4" packing. When I replaced the packing material with the 1/4" gore stuff (GTU or something) from W.Marine I could only get 2 wraps of material in the packing nut and it was extremely tight. The yard guy said it was fine so I put it back together and launched the boat this last week.

I checked the box for dripping and it had a slow drip as normal, and was told I should run the boat slowly in gear for a while at the dock to get everything seated properly. When I checked the gland after about 15 min at 1200 RPM it was very very hot. (before replacement it was always cool to the touch). I loosened the nut and much more water began dripping, and the slightest turn of the nut causes a much greater amount of water to come in, but the box it still very warm at 1200 RPM tied to the dock.

After checking the site, and reading the online owners manual I noticed they call for 1/8" packing which led me to believe that I had installed the wrong size material. I bought some 1/8" GTU and 3/16 GTU just in case, but the 1/8 seems much too small. I'm thinking the 1/4" is too big which is why I could only get 2 wraps in the packing nut. The nut had to be really worked over the propshaft to get it installed, nut the shaft seemed not too tight once I finally got the nut in place. I'm also thinking I should have compressed the 2 installed wraps and tried for a third....it was my first time doing this since my last 2 boats before had PSS seals installed when I bought them.

Can anyone tell me what they have used on their boats or if you have had similar issues. I have a 6 hour run down river to my marina in Mystic CT and I really dont want to leave where I am with a bad or overheating stuffing box. Any suggestions or tips?

Thanks so much!

Todd
 
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Emerald

Moderator
Any chance the particular flavor of 1/4 packing you have wants some lube? I've used some "dripless" packing that required a special grease to be used in conjunction with the material.
 
u079721

u079721

Contributing Partner
I dug out my maintenance log for our 1989 E38-200, and found a note that while the manual says the proper size is 1/8", what fit was 1/4" packing. What I used was a layer of that Drip Free packing sandwiched between two layers of 1/4" flax packing coated with their special lube.

I was bothered enough at the time by the discrepancy (also thinking I had done something wrong) that I called the factory in California, and they confirmed that 1/4" was indeed correct.
 
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oceandreams89

Member II
Yesterday I tried changing to 3/16 packing. I was able to get 3 good wraps into the packing nut but it was still getting hot. I asked the yard guys again, and also mentioned the casting of the stuffing box itself was also getting hot within minutes of putting the boat in gear. They were thinking that the only way for it to get that hot, that quickly was metal to metal contact between the shaft and the box itself.

They recommended that I loosen the hose clamps on the new hose that I had installed and rotate it to try to find if it was touching the shaft, and to try to find its "home". I did this and did find a spot where it was grinding on the shaft. I left the clamps loose and let everything settle with the shaft spinning slowly, found it's happy place, and re-tightened the clamps.

After that, I ran her at the dock up to 2500 RPM for 20 minutes and it wasperfectly cold with just the packing nut just slightly warmer. Lesson learned....I didnt think to check the stuffing box alignment on the shaft after replacing the shaft log hose, and figured it would be symmetrical.

I wish now I had not changed out the packing, but the 3/16 seems to be working fine, and was easy to install. The 1/4 was very very tight to install, and having installed it at the tailgate of my truck, I can't imagine doing that while in the water.

Also, the flow of water into the boat with the packing nut off was not bad at all, and only tripped the bilge pump a few times. I had brought wax to put around the shaft while I worked, but it was not needed.....

Thanks for the replies....and I hope the 3/16 will be ok until I can get 1/4 in there next winter....
 
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