new shaft packing stress

[dory24]

packing was perfectly cut, it sat in the nut nicely with a special homemade tool, 3 wraps offset by 1/3 and then to tighten. turned by hand till i felt some Resistance and that is as far as i was told to go, dont think its enough. i know if ya over tighten its going to bind and burn the shaft, but how loose is to loose . im sure its not going to leak alot when i drop her in and adjustments are easy and need to be done after running her for a couple hour but man the smallest things get me so stressed

[Captain Rich]

Hand tighten, then about one third turn more. When you drop her in start the motor,put shaft in gear, let her leak, stop motor and then tighten untill leak stops. Sometimes you have to do it a couple of times until you are happy with it, not worth getting stressed over, there are worse things!

[dory24]

thanks capt. like i said its the small things i sweat, big ticket like motor trans new tanks and deck, no prob, a loose screw on the handrail will make me loose sleep

[1captainron]

Did you finally decide on the Dura Max as suggested?????

[dory24]

yes i did, just so happened my neighbor had some from last year with his boat and it was 1/4 in. just like i needed. i love free boat fixes. hmmm i take it there is no shelf life on it,lol, it was in a ziplock!