This weekend - windy & lost the prop packing

[Bill_AirJunky]

Just got out of a brutal weekend. Started out good, got out to ride on Friday night. But I didn't have my own foil so I was riding my wife's.... just rode way different than my own & I didn't nail much of anything. Afterward we put the boat in it's slip, turned everything off & covered it. Got up Saturday morning & went down to the boat..... the first indication there was something wrong was the swimstep was underwater. As I pulled the cover back, I found several inches of water on the floor. I turned the batteries on & the bilge pump started pumping. I thought that the auto bilge bypassed the Perko switch, but apparently I'm going to get to address this later. So anyway, we get the boat drained, close the valves for the ballast & get everything off the floor that is now soaked & dry it all out. No big deal. So we head out to ride, and the wind kicks up. We end up with white caps & like 25 mph wind gusts. So we hang out & punish the liver a little. Over the course of a few hours, the bilge pump comes on 2 or 3 times. OK, it's not the ballast thats leaking. So we pull the boat out & out it in the driveway, level it out & fill the bilge with water. After a couple of hours the only thing leaking is where the prop shaft goes into the boat. Great, so why would the prop shaft packing be fine for like the last 3 or 4 weeks, and one day, out of the blue, start leaking like crazy????

Anyway, spent Sunday mowing the lawn & hunting down the tools to get the prop shaft packing tightened down. I never could get it the jam nut loose with channel locks. And was not able to find a 1 7/8" open end wrench anywhere (found them online for like $140!). I ended up using a pair of spanner wrenches ($17 ea. at Home Depot), which are used for assembling plumbing pipes. Not ideal but easily available & 1/2 the cost of the Malibu packing wrenches. Hoping to put the boat back in the lake tonite for a test.

So has anyone ever had the prop packing fail so quickly like that? I've seen them get dried out over the winter & then leak in the spring. But this boats been in the lake for like a month. And now it just starts leaking? WTH?

[aaudii5150]

Just got out of a brutal weekend. Started out good, got out to ride on Friday night. But I didn't have my own foil so I was riding my wife's.... just rode way different than my own & I didn't nail much of anything. Afterward we put the boat in it's slip, turned everything off & covered it. Got up Saturday morning & went down to the boat..... the first indication there was something wrong was the swimstep was underwater. As I pulled the cover back, I found several inches of water on the floor. I turned the batteries on & the bilge pump started pumping. I thought that the auto bilge bypassed the Perko switch, but apparently I'm going to get to address this later. So anyway, we get the boat drained, close the valves for the ballast & get everything off the floor that is now soaked & dry it all out. No big deal. So we head out to ride, and the wind kicks up. We end up with white caps & like 25 mph wind gusts. So we hang out & punish the liver a little. Over the course of a few hours, the bilge pump comes on 2 or 3 times. OK, it's not the ballast thats leaking. So we pull the boat out & out it in the driveway, level it out & fill the bilge with water. After a couple of hours the only thing leaking is where the prop shaft goes into the boat. Great, so why would the prop shaft packing be fine for like the last 3 or 4 weeks, and one day, out of the blue, start leaking like crazy????

Anyway, spent Sunday mowing the lawn & hunting down the tools to get the prop shaft packing tightened down. I never could get it the jam nut loose with channel locks. And was not able to find a 1 7/8" open end wrench anywhere (found them online for like $140!). I ended up using a pair of spanner wrenches ($17 ea. at Home Depot), which are used for assembling plumbing pipes. Not ideal but easily available & 1/2 the cost of the Malibu packing wrenches. Hoping to put the boat back in the lake tonite for a test.

So has anyone ever had the prop packing fail so quickly like that? I've seen them get dried out over the winter & then leak in the spring. But this boats been in the lake for like a month. And now it just starts leaking? WTH?

I think I might have the same type of issue...... I don't keep my boat in the water so never had that much water in the boat

but do drip from the prop shaft much faster than what I think it should be.......

Was it easy to tighten the shaft up once you got the right tools? If I was going to do it myself, how tight to you make it?

[jtrovato]

Ok, Bill, since you have the same boat as me, can you tell me where to look for the prop shaft packing adjustment? I have looked on mine and haven't figured it out yet. Do you have a picture showing where it is?

[99response]

Look for the big nut right where the shaft comes into the boat

[snowrider]

Our prop packing in our 99 Toyota Epic started leaking all of a sudden. We didn't keep it on

the lake so not as many concerns. At the time I wanted to do this maintenance myself, so

emailed the Toyota rep, and he told me the quick fix was to just push another roll of

packing and tighten back down. Easy to do, but there was no dripping at all, which

he said was fine as long as the prop shaft didn't get hot to touch and that the dripping is

just a visual to confirm water is getting through. Anyway, probably not the best maintenance

ever, but it worked.

When we bought our V-ride it luckily had the dripless prop shaft, so hopefully no future issues.

I am concerned to hear that your auto bilge didn't kick in when the boat was moored. I was under

the impression the bilge would kick in even if the boat was running? We keep ours on a slip sometimes

and it would be nice to know that information.

[SacRiverRat]

Perko battery off, is ah.. battery off

[Bill_AirJunky]

The right tools is definitely the way to go. Heres the best deal I could find on them. But obviously their not here now when I need them.

jtrovato, lift up your back seat. The prop packing is directly under the v-drive, and between the ballast pumps.

Heres a good how-to on it. You can also see the spanner wrench in there, which I used two of.

At this point I have the jam nut loose & I'm ready to put it back in the lake & make the final adjustment.

What irks me is that it was working fine, and then it just started leaking Friday night. Apparently a LOT.

Oh, and Snowrider, my next task will be to move the hot wire to my auto bilge directly to the battery. I'd rather have a dead battery than a sunk boat.

Edited June 1, 2009 by Bill_AirJunky

[snowrider]

Okay. I understand if you have the perko switch off. I don't know if we have a perko switch as we only

have a one battery setup. If we do have one we don't or haven't switched it on/off between uses. So, if the switch is on then can I assume the auto-bilge would work (until battery ran down) if the bilge were to fill while moored?

[aaudii5150]

Thanks for the link!

Let us know how the adjustments goes.....

Edited June 1, 2009 by aaudii5150

[Bill_AirJunky]

Okay. I understand if you have the perko switch off. I don't know if we have a perko switch as we only

have a one battery setup. If we do have one we don't or haven't switched it on/off between uses. So, if the switch is on then can I assume the auto-bilge would work (until battery ran down) if the bilge were to fill while moored?

Yea, I'm pretty sure thats how these boats work when they come from the factory. But with everyone adding stereos & multiple batteries (my own included), the Perko switch is cutting power to the auto bilge. A good way to find out is to fill your bilge in your driveway with the garden hose & see when the bilge comes on. There is a "float switch" in there somewhere that should trip the auto bilge on when it get about 3" or 4" deep. The older switches were mechanical & easy to find. But the newer ones are internal in the pump itself & not as easy to spot..... especially contorted & upside down.

I expect I'll just run a single 12 gauge wire from the auto bilge switch to the positive terminal on one of the batteries. And removing the wire that is already there.

Edited June 1, 2009 by Bill_AirJunky

[WakeGirl]

Bill do you have the standard packing or the upgraded? I've seen the upgrade referred to as "dripless" and "water cooled". Just curious. A complete failure like that with standard packing seems unusual, usually it seems to fail in baby steps. What's more is that in the winter when our boats are out of the water, that packing will dry a bit & shrink so that in the spring when you first take the boat out it will appear that it's failing. Usually a few trips out will fix it.

[Bill_AirJunky]

Yea, I was pretty conscientious about watching the drip rate when I dropped the boat in the lake a month or so ago. It was fine at the time, dripping only a few times per minute. I haven't bothered to look at it recently but had not seen the bilge pump come on yet.... till Saturday.

I've only seen pictures of the dripless packing, and I don't think this is it. This boat has the typical big brass nuts around the prop shaft (I'm not touchin that one). I suppose I could fish around inside the nut for the waxy rope stuff. And I'll snap a picture of the whole thing later tonite.

Edited June 1, 2009 by Bill_AirJunky

[aaudii5150]

Just talked to the guys down at the dealer ship, my buddy told me that a drip every 7 seconds was normal for my drive(2007 23 LSV with a 383)....

If any of that helps with the adjustment....

[rustie]

What does that "dripless" packing look like....any pics? Who has it?

Here's a similar wrench in size and length (really short), and it's available at McMaster Carr who will ship same day as ordered (with similar pricing....but in chromed steel). Part number 5414A35 ($28.54) :

Edited June 2, 2009 by rustie

[Bill_AirJunky]

Heres a shot of the prop packing looking thru the back seat of the Vride.

Heres the dripless packing. I've never actually seen one of these so I don't think many manufacturers install them. But who knows.

Edited June 2, 2009 by Bill_AirJunky

[Tao of Wake]

I have the dripless packing on my boat. I had my dealer install it as part of the purchase. After reading a lot about it and my dealer swearing that it is the best thing out there, I decided to get it. My dealer said that they have made it almost a part of their practice to install them on all boats. They have had NO issues with any boats so far.

I really enjoy having a clean dry bilge area!

[DIE2SURF]

What does that "dripless" packing look like....any pics? Who has it?

Here's a similar wrench in size and length (really short), and it's available at McMaster Carr who will ship same day as ordered (with similar pricing....but in chromed steel). Part number 5414A35 ($28.54) :

Bakes too... (Don't forget to check TMC Supporter discounts.)

http://www.bakesonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=1025

http://www.bakesonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=1026

[jtrovato]

Thanks for posting that picture Bill, that's very helpful. Now I'm going to have to take a look in there next time I get out on the boat. It's sitting in the water right now and I know it gets water in the bilge because there's always water in there when I get down there and the bilge pump always kicks on at least once or twice while we're out there.