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leaking water at coupling
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Jimn View Drop Down
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    Posted: October-11-2014 at 2:28am
Hoping someone can help. Don't know much about boat repair. I have 1990 Sport Nautique, Ford 351 PCM engine. Never experienced this leak in the 10 years I have had the boat. Today I noticed a fair amount of water in the bilge, and traced it back to the rear coupling, just after the transmission, dripping maybe 200 drops per minute. I'm out at the Colorado River, away from my mechanic. Is there anything fairly simple I can do to slow down or stop the leak, or does the coupling probably have to be replaced? If so, any idea what this repair costs?
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GlassSeeker View Drop Down
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I think you mean the packing nut...get two big wrenches and loosen off the lock nut then tighten the packing nut to reduce the drip
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Or don't worry about it just run the bilge pump as needed and keep on playing til you gotta go home
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The coupling is the thingy at the shaft that makes the connection to the transmission...they cannot leak.
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GlassSeeker View Drop Down
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Only reduce the drip...don't overtighten...it still needs to drip...maybe 10 drips a minute...you can replace the packing pretty easily for about 10 bucks
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MrMcD View Drop Down
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Originally posted by GlassSeeker GlassSeeker wrote:

Only reduce the drip...don't overtighten...it still needs to drip...maybe 10 drips a minute...you can replace the packing pretty easily for about 10 bucks


I agree, the drip lubricates the shaft, if you tighten you tighten slowly. Slowly because as you reduce the water flow the shaft gets warmer and grows a little further reducing your cooling and lubricating water drip. It should be in gear at idle as you do this.
It may take as much as 20 minutes to get it adjusted.

I have never needed a wrench to tighten the packing nut. Tighten using your hand is usually plenty to adjust the nut.
Once your drip is adjusted properly use two wrenches and lock the two nuts together.
Once the nuts are locked idle some more and watch the drip and feel the nut to make sure it is not getting hot. It may run slightly warm but not anywhere near hot.
The prop side wrench must keep the inside nut from tightening as you tighten the lock nut to it or you will mess up the setting.
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Jimn View Drop Down
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Points: 8 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jimn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October-25-2014 at 5:57pm
Thanks for the great advice! So I tightened the packing nut about half a turn, got no drips, then backed it off to about a quarter turn and currently have maybe 30 drips a minute, still too many, but very manageable now compared to the 200 or so I had before. River temp is maybe 65 to 70 degrees, and the packing nut is running about 110 degrees running at maybe 3,000 RPM. Is this an acceptable temperature, at least for now, until I can do a complete repacking?
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8122pbrainard View Drop Down
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Jim,
I always say that if you can hold your hand on the stuffing box, then it's cool enough to run.

I agree that a repack is in order. Use the Gortext "nearly drip-less".

How about some pictures? Have you made a submission for the diary section?


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BuffaloBFN View Drop Down
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Originally posted by MrMcD MrMcD wrote:

I agree, the drip lubricates the shaft, if you tighten you tighten slowly. Slowly because as you reduce the water flow the shaft gets warmer and grows a little further reducing your cooling and lubricating water drip. It should be in gear at idle as you do this.
It may take as much as 20 minutes to get it adjusted.

I have never needed a wrench to tighten the packing nut. Tighten using your hand is usually plenty to adjust the nut.
Once your drip is adjusted properly use two wrenches and lock the two nuts together.
Once the nuts are locked idle some more and watch the drip and feel the nut to make sure it is not getting hot. It may run slightly warm but not anywhere near hot.
The prop side wrench must keep the inside nut from tightening as you tighten the lock nut to it or you will mess up the setting.


Excellent advice. How is it that some folks who lack this gene tend to gravitate to certain professions?
1988 BFN-sold



"It's a Livin' Thing...What a Terrible Thing to Lose" ELO
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