Rudder stuffing box packing

[Vincentc]

Other than the anxiety from discovering the rudder arm had indented the copper hydraulic tubing, removing the packing was pretty un-eventful.

The corrosion on the bronze rudder fitting looked intimidating. I tried to get elaborate by creating mini-jacks to remove the collar up from the packing but found that a medium sized crowbar and blocks worked fine.



Removing the packing was a little tedious. My tool collection included a few "ice pick" like tools, some bent at the end to form a hook and also some needle nose vice grip pliers. The bottom ring of material is about 4 inches down and the tool about bottomed out.



To my surprise, the water flow once the packing was removed was not that impressive. No gusher, just a steady flow. In the course of the job I probably took on about 20 gallons which flowed not into the center bilge but forward into the ER. No bilge pump there yet, but I did have a 110 v sump pump.

The blueprints call for 3 rings of 1/2" packing. I had 30 inches of gore tex teflon packing which only allowed for 3 rings around the 1 3/4 shaft. I tightened the collar down as far as it was before and it is still has a very slow leak. I've purchased another length of packing and will add a 4th ring.

Before that, I will be re-working the rudder linkage to put the stop collars where they belong.

 

[SEVEN]

Sounds like you did everything right. It's a tight space to get it done. Pat yourself on the back, like everything, once it's done, you ask yourself why was I scared.

 

[PeterK]

Bruce Morrison did a neat trick for us when he changed out our packings: Hut a nut between the collar and the base. Turn the nut and force off the collar- noo pry bars needed. The other thing he did was put a suare oof starboards larger than the shaft on top. Rudder cannot fall out under any circumstances now.

If my words aren't clear, I can take a picture or two...

 

[SEVEN]

Send the photos, we can all learn from this.

 

[PeterK]

Send the photos, we can all learn from this.

Sorry for the delay- problems posting pics before:

 

[Vincentc]

Thanks for the photos.

I tried placing nuts below the collar and there was not sufficient side clearance.

As a post script to my report on packing replacement:

After I installed 3 rings of packing as shown in the Hatteras blueprint, there was still a leak. I added a 4th ring, the collar tightened to approximately the same position as with 3 rings and the leak stopped.