NO WATER under the engine-CD25D

[Mimi Litsche]

Recent dialogue on the board, re; water under the engine has prompted me to write about this year's launch vs. last year's. I bought my '82 CD25D last year in august. The boat had not been in the water for about a year prior. I did not know at the time that the set screws were loose and the prop shaft had been moving in and out, but restrained by a well placed stainless hose clamp. Not knowing anything about stuffing boxes, i soon learned that they are supposed to sweat or drip. Last year, i had water in the pan under the engine which over time, subsided to little or nothing. I assume the packing "took-Up" as they used to say about wooden boats. This spring, we fixed the prop shaft problem by resetting the set screws and through-pinning the propshaft with the transmission flange (the holes were there--all i did was use a 1/4 " ss bolt). This year i have NO WATER under the engine. In both cases--the engine ran well, as it should and there have been no problems forward or backward under power. But I am concerned that I have NO WATER under the engine if the stuffing box is supposed to weep. Any comments about this from the more learned out there?



mlitsche@hotmail.com

[Ken Coit]

Mimi,

The real test is how warm the packing nut gets. If it is warm, so is the shaft. If it is hot, so is the shaft. If it is too tight it will be hot and the shaft will become scored and it will leak. I suppose it might even sieze up, but I have not heard of a case like that.

If you are using drip less materials from your local purveyor of marine goodies, it may not drip and it may stay cool. I am using what we refer to around here as "teflon goop", and it didn't drip for a year, but I recently discovered that it was dripping even with the engine not running. I have turned the packing nut in a quarter turn and we will see what that does. It did stop the constant drip while at rest.

Check out the temperature of the packing nut. It should not be very warm after running the engine in gear.

Ken
S/V Parfait
Raleigh, NC

Recent dialogue on the board, re; water under the engine has prompted me to write about this year's launch vs. last year's. I bought my '82 CD25D last year in august. The boat had not been in the water for about a year prior. I did not know at the time that the set screws were loose and the prop shaft had been moving in and out, but restrained by a well placed stainless hose clamp. Not knowing anything about stuffing boxes, i soon learned that they are supposed to sweat or drip. Last year, i had water in the pan under the engine which over time, subsided to little or nothing. I assume the packing "took-Up" as they used to say about wooden boats. This spring, we fixed the prop shaft problem by resetting the set screws and through-pinning the propshaft with the transmission flange (the holes were there--all i did was use a 1/4 " ss bolt). This year i have NO WATER under the engine. In both cases--the engine ran well, as it should and there have been no problems forward or backward under power. But I am concerned that I have NO WATER under the engine if the stuffing box is supposed to weep. Any comments about this from the more learned out there?

parfait@nc.rr.com