Shaft Packing

[hd2002hd]

1998 400 with 7.4s. I noticed some water in the bilge so I took a borescope and fixed it on the port side shaft packing gland. Sure enough it leaks at higher rpms. Since I don’t know much about this I need some education. My understanding is sometimes there are extra packing rings installed so the shaft doesn’t have to be disassembled. How can I tell? There is a blue boot about 6” Long where the shaft goes through the hull and this has a hose attached to it I assume for cooling. Can the packing be tightened? If so, how big of a job is that. Is there an immediate concern with the water leak? I noticed the act bilge will pump after about 45-60 minutes of run time. I don’t see anything on the shaft between the blue boot and the coupling at the tranny. Any help/advice is appreciated.

 

[Golfman25]

Don't confuse packing with a dripless seal. Packing is the old fashioned way. Several rings of "rope like" material stuffed into a packing gland and tightened down. It is supposed to leak a tiny bit for cooling purposes. Easy and cheap to maintain. Just replace packing every so often.

The dripless seal is an actual shaft seal. Either a lip seal or a two piece mechanical seal. Should have a small diameter hose for cooling purposes. If you have a leaking lip seal, there is not a lot you can do. Sometimes there is a spare already on the shaft you can use as a replacement. If it's a mechanical seal, you can try cleaning the faces and/or adjusting the pressure between the faces. To replace you'll need to disconnect the shaft.