Shaft stuffings

[questover]

I have read the pervious posts. They all are old. Was wondering if there are any new thoughts about packings today. I plan to redo my shaft packings on 2 1/2 shafts next pull out? Thanks

 

[Boatsb]

As in material for the stuffing box or to change to dripless?

I still think the dripless is not worth it.

Go with the goretex/ptfe

 

[motoryacht lover]

My experience with the gore was not good. I found that some of the marine professionals aren’t familiar with gore’s specific run in procedures. Apparently if you overtighten the gore packing there is no coming back. You will have to pull it out and start over. That was my experience. A young man installed it and overtightened it and the boxes got hot and didn’t leak. I was concerned about the overheating so we went out on a sea trial monitoring the stuffing boxes so no damage. I would say if you can work with somebody that understands it or you can do it yourself and deal with a long break in period with periodic slight tightening and monitoring I think it is better than traditional flax packing. Having said all of that I am going back to flax packing.

 

[Glory]

I have used conventional packing, lasts 6 to 7 years.

I typically do 200 hours a year. Sadly not this year.

 

[wndsr]

I recently replaced my dripless shaft seals with conventional stuffing boxes and used gore tex and added a cooling line. Run in time is important. After about 10 hours of run time, readjusted and all is good. I went this direction because I wanted to keep a dry bilge.

 

[BOATER BOB]

Ill say it again I have been using Western Pacific trading drip less packing for 15 years and that's 10 years on first boat and 5 on second boat follow instructions and forget about it best thing ever.
Bob