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Shaft Packing May End Me


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Hi Team - I posted last year on this topic and still can't win. Here is a summary to date:

  • Have tested both GFO (virtually dripless) and now standard wax rope (3/16")
  • Have tried and redone each set up twice
  • Have tested both 2 and 3 rings at a time
  • No noticeable shake or vibration from V drive

Symptoms:

  • Nut can be adjusted to drip out the front of it- even to a rate of a drip per second
  • Nut remains very hot to touch
  • I have ran the boat at this heat for 5 minute intervals to test if there is 'break in' required. Still hot.

Any help?!?! Would really like to have the boat on the water for the 4th of July. Even called the local Malibu dealer and they said "this is perplexing" 

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How hot is hot? Can you hold your hand on the nut for a couple seconds after grabbing hold of it?  It will stay pretty warm anyway no matter how many drips of water are coming out.

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1 hour ago, jwl019 said:

How hot is hot? Can you hold your hand on the nut for a couple seconds after grabbing hold of it?  It will stay pretty warm anyway no matter how many drips of water are coming out.

It is pretty hot. You wouldn't want to hold your hand on it more than 5 seconds or so. I havent had my IR gun on it but I believe they should be close to lake temp :(

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32 minutes ago, formulaben said:

When you installed did you use a teflon lubricant, such as Syntef or Magic Lube?

I did not. I have heard mix reviews on that allowing water through to drip. I have the drip but no cooling is taking place...could be an option to try next ? 

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At this point I don't think it could hurt.  I put the Magic Lube on mine and if for no other reason I liked that it is tacky and helped keep the rings seated together in the nut before I could get it threaded onto the shaft.  I did see the warning not to use too much, as it will "seal" the entire nut and not allow any water through at all...so I guess there's a good balance in there somewhere.  FWIW, I did put some WD40 on the shaft to help it slide down onto the nut and help break up some of the excess lube that was near the area where water needs to drip.  Wasn't in the instructions, just something I did on a hunch.

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8 minutes ago, teamerickson said:

How many loops? If you did 3 maybe try 2?

I have tested both 3 and 2 loops. Both had the same amount of heat and drip rate. 

  • Like 1
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Maybe it could have to do with the tightness of the hose clamps on the prop shaft tube. I have those hand tight with a nut driver. 

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6 minutes ago, csleaver said:

Are you using 3/16 or 1/4 packing?  I've had a similar issue years ago when I used the wrong size packing on a 1-1/8 shaft.

I am using 3/16", which I believe to be correct? 

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3/16 should be the right size.  Maybe the strips are binding up on each other in the packing nut.  I usually go under the boat and wrap the packing around the prop shaft to get my strips cut to the right length, then put one in, tighten the nut, remove the nut, then install the next strip and tighten it back up, back the nut off, then put it on hand tight.  Make sure the packing nut is cleaned out really good before putting the strips in.   It sounds like a kind of strange issue.  Maybe try just one strip of packing and see what happens.  Hopefully your bilge pump in good shape, LOL.  It sucks when weird problems pop up.

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Could also upgrade to the Glide dripless kit... essentially no maintenance or drip rate to count.     I'm in process of doing that now since I had to pull drive shaft to fix bent strut

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8 hours ago, rugger said:

Could also upgrade to the Glide dripless kit... essentially no maintenance or drip rate to count.     I'm in process of doing that now since I had to pull drive shaft to fix bent strut

Sadly that would be cheaper than taking it in, they qouted me $500, but I'm not sure it would fix the issue and pulling the coupler off for install sounds awful. Especially considering how simple this project was meant to be 

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3 hours ago, BuNewb said:

Sadly that would be cheaper than taking it in, they qouted me $500, but I'm not sure it would fix the issue and pulling the coupler off for install sounds awful. Especially considering how simple this project was meant to be 


It would fix the issue, but yes you have to remove driveshaft to do it.    That part can suck depending on access to the coupler.   Check your strut bearings as well....  if you find a day you need to replace them, might as well do that and upgrade your seal system at same time.   There's no adjustment on the Glide system.   No wax rope, no drips.   

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Took out wax rope today and tried two layers of dripless gfo (goretex). After 5 minutes of cruising 90 degrees, after 10 minutes around 120 degrees :( was the best I could do on that set up and about 3 hours out there playing with it. 

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I put in the PSS water cooled shaft seal about 10 years ago and haven't touched it . No leaks and works very nicely. You will have to remove or slide back the shaft from the coupling to install . Best time and money spent. 

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I think regular packing needs time to absorb water and expand. Leave the boat in the water for a few nights, letting it drip while moored. Make sure your auto bilge works. Run it like normal but don't tighten the nut for 3 days. Then tell us if the nut's still hot.

On my old 1990, I had it adjusted to where there was no drip and no heat. For 4 years. It would always drip some at the beginning of the season.

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