Stuffing box.

[bigman1]

Hi folks,
I had my stuffing box repacked by a marine engineer,i could have done it myself but a tight fit for a 73 year old arthritic. I took the boat [seadog 30]
for a 3 hour passage to my new berth,i noticed that the s/b was getting very hot but the prop shaft was cold? Later on i had the s/b pusher slackened off
and expected some water to come through not a drop. So i then had the pusher screw's slackened right back and removed the pusher still not a drop.I have been trying without success to contact the engineer.I think the reason for the shaft to remain cold while the stuffing box got very hot,was that the packing was stuck to the shaft and rubbing on the s/b tube.Out of interest the packing is graphite.If anyone can think what the problem is please let me know.
Thanks. Ronnie.

[Schooner Chandlery]

The common wisdom is if the stuffing box is hot, there's friction that shouldn't be there. Traditional stuffing box, loosen the nut until you see a drip and then it's up to you to decide how many drips per minute does the trick.

The graphite packing (e.g. Gore brand and others) can be run w/o a drip but we use it in a traditional stuffing box allowing the box to drip. It's been in use since 2009. We'll expect to replace it on the next haulout (winter 2016/2017 timeframe).

You should hunt down your marine service tech who did it and get his stance on it.

Fair winds,
Brenda

[Lepke]

Unless you checked the temps right after running, it could be the shaft could have cooled because the shaft and prop act as a heat sink.
Whenever I change out packing, I rub waterproof grease on the shaft before working in the packing. I used this on old and new style packing w/o problems.