Carver Owners Forum

I've done this on sailboats, but they have much smaller shafts. Will I be in for a flood if I try this on the Santego?

If it's easy to get at, then it shouldn't be a problem. Just have everything ready; all the tools at hand that you'll need, packing cut ahead of time, tying a rag around the shaft at the tube once you pull the log back helps minimize water flow, and make sure your floats and bilge pumps are working just in case.

What I like to do is bring a strip of rubber, about 2" wide and a foot or so long. Like a cut out section of a bicycle inner tube.

Take the packing nut back from the stuffing box. Wrap the rubber strip overlapping the threads and the prop shaft and wrap a couple times. That will pretty much seal any leak. Then you can either zip-tie it or put a clamp or even just some electrical tape to hold it, while you work on getting the old packing out of the nut and the new packing in place. You can take your time and get it 100% right. Then pull the rubber strip off and start threading the nut back on.

Used bicycle inner tubes on some other repairs. I guess I don't understand the part about getting the packing out of the nut. The ones I'm familiar with, the packing is in the threaded part, not the nut. Whole new world!

Here's what ones look like that I'm familiar with. If you haven't dug out some old packing out of a packing nut before, then you're in for a treat!! (just kidding). If you have something like a dental pic or some small screwdrivers they might help.

Never seen one quite like that. Have gotten packing out of ancient packing glands before. I have the screw in tool (nose picker?) and several giant size dental picks. Appreciate the diagram.
Thanks,
Bob