[DrB]

Thanks to all of the replies. My original postion was to leave it alone for the season, but I went sailing yesterday and checked the drip rate after a few days of sitting idle before we motored out of the harbor. At rest, 1 drop every 45 seconds. Not desirable, but managable.

So we went sailing and then motored for 20 minutes back to the hook after the sail. Checked the drip rate and the rate was once every 4 seconds immediately after stop, check again just before leaving the boat (2 h later) and it was once every 7 seconds. I used an eye dropper to put some PB Blaster on the lock nut before we left incase I needed to do something to the box the next day.

This morning, the drip rate was once every 14 seconds, about 3X faster than last week. So we needed to do something.

My wife and I worked together to get the locknut to move. Once free, I turned the pack nut and then we resnugged the locknut. We started the motor and headed out of the harbor while I monitored the drip rate. After 3 minutes, I hadn't seen a drip, so we dropped the speed to crawl and went back to the hook. I backed off the pack nut maybe 10 degrees and retorqued the lock nut. Refired the motor and headed out again. I couldn't get a drip rate when the shaft was in the 2000+ rpm rate because the water was being thrown off, but at idle speed (1500 rpm) I was getting 1 every 6 seconds and then at rest 1 every 40 seconds as soon as the motor was into neutral. So it is considerably better than before, but not the 3 drips minute when shaft turning, none when not.

This is the first time I adjusted a packing nut and it is a finicky adjustment. Less than a 16th of a turn makes the drip rate go from a lot to none. My packing material is about 6 years old and based on my adjusting experience, it is maybe nearing the end of it's life.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

DrB