Stern Gland / Stuffing Box Stud

[Colvic26]

My Colvic Sailor 26 has a yoke type stuffing box and shaft gland nut arrangement at the aft end of the engine bay. While doing routine maintenance, I noticed one stud (which was also "earthed" to the external anode) was slack & on turning it, found it corroded severely. Obviously the earthing was not effective...! I have searched the web to try and find what arrangement is holding the stud in place, but to no avail. Anyone able to advise how this stud is held in place ? (Boat is in the water, there's no leakage at present but I don't want to run the engine as I fear the vibration will disturb the gland yoke and cause damage / flooding.

 

[anderson]

if it is a stud it can only be screwed in,try putting 2 nuts on lock them both together, and unscrew by turning the back nut.the tail end should only be about 1"long.

 

[Colvic26]

Unfortunately the stud is broken inside the yoke, so inaccessible for removal without withdrawing the yoke itself - reluctant to do this without an idea of what to expect!. Was really trying to establish what normally retains the stud - I have no idea what is "behind" the yoke.

 

[Honey]

I too have a Colvic 26 Sailor and had the same problem as you.
On my vessel the "stud" turned out to be a bolt that joined a flange on the inboard end of the shaft tube through a plywood support plate that is glassed to the hull and then through the flange of the stern gland. To get there to replace it, I had to get behind the plywood support plate which entailed removal of the fuel tank which sits above it and which itself needed the engine out - so it is a big job!
You must realise, however, that most of these boats were sold for home completion and so there are almost as many versions as owners!

 

[Colvic26]

To close out this query, I solved the problem by drilling through the hole in the yoke until all metal swarf stopped and GRP dust started, then I carefully chiselled out the GRP behind the yoke. Once through to the drilled out channel, I was able to pass a new length of (stainless steel) stud bar through and fit a washer with 2 nuts, which were locked together. Having tested that a nut could be tightened from the outside of the yoke without the locked nuts and stud turning in the chiselled out "chamber", I then used marine epoxy filler to fill the "chamber". It was not as big a job as I had anticipated, other than "whipping" out the engine...! Still, it was a good chance to give the old lump a bit of a cosmetic clean up.