Marinette Boat Forum

I discovered water coming out of the prop shaft after terrible rain this weekend. I was looking underneath the hull and saw the rain water dripping out. I am concerned about this as I intend on putting the boat in the water this weekend. Can anyone give me some insight on what I need to do?

Well When was the last time you repacked the stuffing box for the propeller shaft. You may get by just tweaking the packing gland a tad.
If you not sure when the box was repacked Now would be an excellent time for a repack job.
Here is a site that explains alot.
http://gfopacking.com/
Also a great product to use.

Also check the hose clamps on the hose between the shaft log and the stuffing box.

Is you bildge pump working

bill

Sharing your concern because if water is leaking out when you're on the hard, it's going to leak in when you've launched. To try to zero in on the stuffing box as the cause, run a small stream from a hose in the affected area and see what happens. That could help you zero in to the cause. Maybe, as Bill suggests, the stuffing box (packing gland) is really (really) loose and it's a quick fix. I'm thinking, though that you would have noticed lots of water in the bilge before you pulled the boat last season. The stuffing box usually doesn't come loose quickly out of the water. It's a gradual thing. Good luck with the repair

Boatin...
Bill brought up a good point, is your bilge pump active/working? The reason I ask is that the orientation of the suffing box is such that it's normally higher (and hence - dry) than the bilge pump. So for water to run out would seem to indicate that the water level in the bilge's pretty high!

With old style packing there's always some water that will drip in when the boat's in the water. The packing, when it first gets wet, swells a certain degree. But, unless you have a good "no-drip" packing in place, you'll want a small dripping process to occur. Water's the natural lubricant between the packing and the shaft. It helps keep the shaft lubricated and from scoring as it rotates around the packing. That's why the old style packing/packing gland nut wasn't tightened to the point of no drip.

The GFO packing Bill refers to is a no-drip packing that a lot of folks use.

Bill

If I understand correctly, you are on the hard. Did you remove the drain plug? If so there is something covering the opening. There shouldn't be that much water in boat, in fact none!
The shaft packing is a separate issue.
Roger

Well first off, Sunday evening around 6:30-6:45 it rained as hard as I have ever EVER seen it rain. I'm guessing 50mph wind, and horizontal water like a fire hose. Can't even call it rain it was so hard.. 10 or so minutes of that and it was done.
So in the deluge your deck might have filled up with water? For sure somewhat, and then dripped/ran out onto shaft? Check that stuffing box. I'd inspect it and tighten the nut and keep an eye on it after you launch. You can always loosen the nut later. Sounds dumb but make sure there's packing in it.. Never under estimate the ingenuity of idiots..
Sean

Double check your packing gland hose! Often overlooked and they do go bad. If replacement is in order that MUST be done on the hard.

safe boating,

dave

Roger is right, no matter how hard the rain for ur bilge to have enough water to cover the stuff boxes is a hundred gallons or so. Either a passage is clogged or the plug hole is. This may be a blessing in disguise I've known people that flood bilges prelaunch to get stuffing swollen and dialed in on boats that have been dry a while. Happy boating.

Yeah I think we need some clarification here.. Was the bilge full of water or not?
Let's hope not.. Caaaaause that'd be a lot of water..
Sean

The bilge isn't full of water at all. I'm on the hard right now. I had the engine hatch open and it was raining. The wife asked me to get something from the car and I noticed water dripping from the shaft. Something I am not quite sure of is, how many bilge pumps are normally on a 1970 28' express. I have one just aft of the bow but there is a new unconnected wire running from the helm to the engine bay labeled bilge pump. The P.O. was in the process of upgrading things on the boat and I don't know if this was something he was adding or should of already been there as I can find no other bilge pump in the back of the boat anywhere? Thank you!