Carver Owners Forum

Leaking shafts 3007 81'

Leaking between shafts and packing?
Just tighten up the packing a bit.
Tighten, run in gear, check for a random drip now and then. Keep tightening / running / checking until you have just a random drip.
If you make them too tight, you'll burn them up. They need water for lubrication, thus a random drip now and then is good.

Or leaking between the housing and the hull? If so, you may get lucky just tightening the mounting nuts. If not, it will have to come out of the water to re-bed the housing(s).

I agree with Fred.

If the packing nuts are bottomed out, you can still add or replace the packing material while in the water. Just have everything you need, and the packing material cut to the proper length before removing the nut. A managable amount of water will come in, just make sure your pumps are working. Depending on the type of unit, one of them (strb) might be reversed thread so careful how much force you apply when loosening as you might be tightening further instead. Keep that in mind too if all you're going to do is tightening a bit to reduce leaking.

Viper wrote: Depending on the type of unit, one of them (strb) might be reversed thread so careful how much force you apply when loosening as you might be tightening further instead. Keep that in mind too if all you're going to do is tightening a bit to reduce leaking.

I should have mentioned that about the starboard side, especially since I learned this by trying bigger wrenches going the wrong way until I realized, duh, the prop would loosen it up if it were the normal way.

I think we've all fallen for that one!