Gulf Comanche
Guru
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2007
- Messages
- 1,047
- Location
- U.S.A.
- Vessel Name
- Old School
- Vessel Make
- 38' Trawler custom built by Hike Metal Products
Started the stuffing box repacking about 9 this morning. 45 minutes or so later, I pulled the last of 6 flax rings out of the nut.The corkscrew worked ok but needed the picks too. Then began the cutting of the GFO rings, huge PIA. Laying on the galley floor hanging over the shaft alley, water flowing in, tryin to get the correct size. One problem was that stuff frays badly, so when it’s finally inside the nut I wasn’t sure if the ends touched or not. Pressed on as there was no other choice and I only had 2 feet of GFO to work with. Got 3 rings into the nut, staggered at 90* or so, and started screwing the nut back on. The nut finally goes all the way to the end of the threads and still big water flow. Back the nut off, the last little bit of GFO was short so I put the one piece of flax I had in the nut and screwed back on. Water finally slows to a few drips and then stops later in the day, flax probably expanded or something. The GoreTex site instructions say no more than 3 rings; I could easily do 5 or 6 because of the depth of the nut. Not sure if the threads inside the nut made the rings turn over and not seat properly or the frayed ends caused the leakage. Have not run the boat yet pending some opinions from TF crew. This job beat the sht outta me.
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