Rudder Packing Gland to Steering Quadrant Leak

[Ocean Girl]

We have a leak north of the rudder packing gland right as the gland butts up to the steering quadrant.

Anyone know how these are usually constructed? Is the gland threaded up into the quadrant? Or is it keyed?

Here is pic of rudder and hopefully vid of leak. The vid and pic is lousey as we were underway and I was crammed up into the compartment making sure not to interfere with the steering.

This leak only occurs while motoring, when her stern squats.

[Ocean Girl]

More, pic

[Ocean Girl]

From the engine pic

[neilpride]

The packing gland is toasted, the quadrant normally is a 2 piece clamped in the stock and keyed , i suspect you need to take apart the quadrant to replace the packing gland , but be sure the rudder quadrant is not holding the rudder in place , is not the first time i see something so lame in a rudder, check if the top of the rudder stock have a pin or some kind of device to hold the rudder up.

Quadrants ,,, if is aluminium , good luck with that if you dont make regular maintenance there, the screws usually are SS in a moist enviroment mixed with the aluminium quadrant, i choped in pieces a bunch of quadrants when heat torch, pb blaster and other gorilla ideas fail, i hope yours is in good order....

So i think you need to disconect the quadrant, pull out the key in the shaft apart, reléase the packing gland top bolts, replace the packing , and
put back everything in place.... by the way i think the packing stuff is in the top part of the stufing box , 3 rings maybe ...

Some boats under engine sunk the stern a bit making the leak worse, if you do it in a marina and your stern tube is well under the waterline, put some weight in the bow to help keep the leak out of the bay and have all the parts ready....
Good luck...

[Boatyarddog]

I don't think the gland it self is a problem.
Like your prop shaft packing box, these rudder packing glands have flax packing rings.
Looks like the gland packing rings may need replacement.
You'll need to slide the quadrant up if you've got clearance, remove the gland bolts that hold the top of the gland to the box.
The rings are under this.
If you don't have adequate room for this you'll need to remove the wires to your steering if you have them, or whatever linkage to the steering, unbolt the quadrant bolts, ( mark the position relative to the shaft and quadrant) , and remove the two halves.
Then you may have the space you need to preform the packing rings replacement.
Not sure how far above the waterline this is, you may have to haul if under the waterline, and a lot of water comes out of tube when you loosen it.
Sometimes you can move as much weight as you can forward into the front of the boat to get the packing gland above the waterline.


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[Ocean Girl]

Thanks for the great instructions. We are at anchor but should be in a transient slip in a coupke days. I will wait till then. She only leaks when motoring, her stern squats.
She has a rudder boot so no worries about loosing the rudder. I have read about difficulties finding the bolt hole once it is removed from the steering gear and rudder shaft. I will try to find ways to mark it so I canget it back in easily( ish). There isn't much room, there WILL be cursing involved, but now that I understand the dynamics of how it all is put together, it seems pretty straight forward( knock on wood).
Thanks again for the great replies.
Erika

[neilpride]

If you feel in need of advice when disambling the whole thing or after just post some pics and we try our best, good luck ...

[Cheechako]

I had a trawler that only leaked when squatted also. Many of those are just packing glands like your prop shaft. BEWARE: you don't want to deep six your rudder when you take everything off it!

[Ocean Girl]

our rudder is attached by a rudder boot, we just inspected it during haul out. But keep up the nightmare scenarios in case I'm missing something( I am blonde after all).

Would it be a good idea to unbolt the packing gland first then the steering quadrant? in case the upper packing gland flange is corroded sealed to the quadrant? Then I can move the whole contraption up a few inches and not try to work out the 30 year marriage of these two metals....

[a64pilot]

You are already soaking everything with your favorite penetrating oil? Can't soak for too long, I'd try a little heat a few times a day while you are waiting for that slip if you have the means
Put some rags under it and keep everything soaked
I'd put it back together with anti seize as well, just find some without graphite


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[shipleft]

That's a good thing having that lower pivot bearing, but you will have to pull the quadrant in order to get the top part of the packing gland up and out of the way. You should try to get all the old packing out (ice pick?) before putting the new rings of packing in. Alternate the cut ends of the new rings by at least 60 degrees to avoid water bypassing the rings. Sounds like that gland top is just above the waterline(many are) if it only leaks while squatted so you shouldn't have any water pouring in while you work on it, and kudos to you for not being a wuss about taking on the job!

[JPA Cate]

Ocean Girl,

If you have a dental pick you can use for it, they're great at snagging packing material...

Ann

[Ziggy]

Originally Posted by neilpride

The packing gland is toasted, the quadrant normally is a 2 piece clamped in the stock and keyed , i suspect you need to take apart the quadrant to replace the packing gland , but be sure the rudder quadrant is not holding the rudder in place , is not the first time i see something so lame in a rudder, check if the top of the rudder stock have a pin or some kind of device to hold the rudder up.

Quadrants ,,, if is aluminium , good luck with that if you dont make regular maintenance there, the screws usually are SS in a moist enviroment mixed with the aluminium quadrant, i choped in pieces a bunch of quadrants when heat torch, pb blaster and other gorilla ideas fail, i hope yours is in good order....

So i think you need to disconect the quadrant, pull out the key in the shaft apart, reléase the packing gland top bolts, replace the packing , and
put back everything in place.... by the way i think the packing stuff is in the top part of the stufing box , 3 rings maybe ...

Some boats under engine sunk the stern a bit making the leak worse, if you do it in a marina and your stern tube is well under the waterline, put some weight in the bow to help keep the leak out of the bay and have all the parts ready....
Good luck...

All good advice, except I would not use a torch in a confined space, where there's probably quite a bit of old grease on the quadrant sheaves and steering cables. You could try an impact wrench, however...

[HappyMdRSailor]

Pretty good little bilge flushing system ya guys got there...

As implied, this is gunna be a crap job do to the amount of frustration performing a series of straightforward simple steps.... None of which is likely to go smoothly.... ****sigh***

Everybody's got this right, as in moving the quadrant first.... If there's plenty of room to just slide it up, you might see if it makes sense to zip tie your cable to the quadrant.... maybe not...

As A64 says... you should be dousing with your penetrating oil de jeur like you're exorcising a demon with holy water....

Ann's dental pick is good, I find a drywall screw to be my favorite... I think like all mention, moving weight and having plans and patience, you'll have no problem at the dock... You will need more beer or rum after though...

[Boatyarddog]

I don't think your rudder will move at all, as I believe the rudder is supported above the quadrant. It looks as though you'll just slide or disassemble the Quadrant and then be able to loosen the packing bolts and slide it up, and expose the flax rings, dig them out and replace.


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