[BarryL]

Hello,

I was in a similar situation last year. This was my first boat with a conventional stuffing box. It dripped a little more than yours. I ignored it for 6 months before I got brave enough to try and tighten it a little. I bought the special stuffing box tool, and brought some big water pump pliers and a pipe wrench. I sprayed some liquid wrench onto the lock nut, tapped it a little with a hammer, and waited a day.

The next day I removed everything from the rear berth so I had good access, put the stuffing box wrench in it, and used the pliers to loosen the lock nut. No go. The stuffing box wrench would slip off. So I tried the pipe wrench. I used gentle pressure and the lock nut loosened. I tightened the coupling about 1 turn. Way too much, no water dripped at all. I ended up with 1/4 turn of tightening. Now I get 0 drips when the shaft is stationary and 1-2 drips a minute when the shaft turns. The shaft stays nice and cool.

I had originally planned on going to a dripless, but now I'm not going to bother.

I should have made the adjustment 6 months before. It was really no big deal.

Barry