Stuffed

[nzmal]

We hauled our for the first time in Oct and the antifoul and other projects went well... but one thing I tackled was replacing the packing in the gland.
I flew home early and my wife reported that on the 3hr motor back to our marina no water was dripping...so clearly I overtightened. Can I loosen the gland now or will I have to haul out again and repack? We live away from the marina and the boat hasn't been used Since berthing after haul out.

[Cheechako]

If it's till not dripping.. hmmm... I might be concerned . Normally I would think after running for 3 hours, even if a bit too tight, it would be dripping now. I wonder how hot it got?
No harm if it's really not dripping now in loosening a bit and running it a while.

[Vasco]

Back it off a tad. After running for a little while put your hand on the stuffing box. If it's hot back it off some more. Keep doing this until the stuffing box runs cool. It should drip a bit when running about a drop a minute should do it.

[nzmal]

OK I'll try loosening it. I was planning this but read a thread where it was suggested the packing would have gone hard and become incapable of loosening...