Stuffing Box Packing Material

The stuffing box click any image to see a larger version while digging around in some old boat parts boxes i found a stuffing box from an older sailboat.

Stuffing box packing material.

In a common type of stuffing box rings of braided fiber known as shaft packing or gland packing form a seal between the shaft and the stuffing box. If the adjusting nut does not turn easily use a pipe wrench on the stuffing box flange located just forward of the hose to keep the box from turning with the nut. Boat drive train shaft packing stuffing boxes. The drivetrain starts at the transmission and includes everything through the end of the propeller shaft including couplings drive plates the marine stuffing box and shaft packing or marine shaft seal the flex couplings the cutless bearing and more.

Three or four rings are normal for small and medium yachts with auxiliary engines. The traditional design the type that relies on rings of waxed flax packing material has been around for hundreds of years having first seen widespread use on the water pumps attached to dutch windmills. A sound stuffing box installation is critical to safety because failure can admit a catastrophic volume of water into the boat. In continuation with previous article it is a guide in the usage of gland packings.

You do not want to twist this hose or twist the stuffing box inside the hose. I though it would be a good time to rig it up in my shop and illustrate how to replace the packing material inside one of these tried true work horse style stuffing boxes. There s at least one on every inboard powered vessel and two if you count those used on most rudders. Because of its composition and design it lasts more than 5 times longer and outperforms all flax and ptfe packing in marine stern tube rudder and bulkhead applications.

A traditional variety of shaft packing comprises a square cross. Marine stuffing box packing material ultra x replaces flax packing in stuffing boxes ultra x is a braided hydrophobic fiber packing. Various materials are used for the packing traditionally flax hemp and cotton but. Some stuffing boxes are rigidly attached to the hull but most are connected to the shaft tube with a length of flexible hose.

Stuffing boxes are ubiquitous. Rings of a soft packing material are placed around the shaft inside the gland nut.