Stern Gland

S

sticky

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 Jan 2004
Messages
175
Location
Cheltenham Glos
www.sail-help.co.uk
My stern gland, recently repacked by a yard, has now stopped its occasional drip of water. It is grease lubricated, and is now running very hot indeed, too hot to touch after an hour's run. I have pulled away the how's-your-father which tightens up the packing and am watching things carefully. I have been told to put oil into the packing with a hyperdermic, keep the how's-your-father finger tight and keep on pumping in grease. Am I doing things right? Should I be worried about the heating of the gland? What will be the outcome, excessive wear? How do I find out if it is all right or all wrong for the gland to heat up? Boat is 26 years old, builder gone to wall, sadly. Grateful any advice.
 
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First check that the sea cock for the lubricating water is open. If this has been left closed by the yard, this would explain the overheating. Also, the yard want a roasting for their incompetence.

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WTF r u on about its his stern gland not his ENGINE /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
What makes you think it is water lubricated?

Presume it is just a packed, greased gland.

Shouldn't be that hot. Neet to release the pressure till it starts dripping. Every thirty seconds or so is fine. It can get hot if tighted up too far.

Presume the packing size was correct. Never re-packed mine so don't know ins and outs once it is done, but am sure others will have that experience.
 
For A More Practical Answer

After re-packing stern glands they can tend to run a little hot until there beded in. in my opinion dont inject oil into the gland and dont turn to much grease in to it.
Unless the yard has used a graphite packing(which should always be avoided due to it causing excesive wear)the packing will hopefully in time bed in.
If in doubt have someone take a look at it!
 
ksprit, thank you for your comment. The water is not controlled by a seacock, up to now it has dribbled in at a very slow flow along the shaft and into the gland. and I have never been troubled with overheating. I have posted this query because, when I approached the yard which repacked the gland, the marine engineer inferred that some glands do run hot. My concern is whether mine is one of them, and hopefully there is someone on the forum who can tell me how to find this out. Problem is that all the boats I have sailed in the last 40 years have never had a stern gland which was meant to (knowingly) run hot.
 
Is this a wind up? If not perhaps there is something wrong with the RYA instructor training

Ask one of your skippers etc
 
I think the engineer was prevaricating. A bearing is supposed to reduce friction to a minimum - so any bearing that gets hot ain't doing a very good job.

As others have said most of the 'traditional' packed shaft seals require an occasional drip of water to lubricate them. The grease is not there to lubricate - it's there to waterproof the packing. Typically one drip every 30 seconds while the shaft is running is what's usually recommended.

There are some exotic packing materials which can be used which eliminate the need for water lubrication, but I wouldn't think they would have used this unless you requested it.
 
Some confusion and a bit of ill informed talk.
Trad stern glands are packed and lubed with grease filled packing, the securing nut tension is critical. sounds like this one needs backed off a tad.
There are other stern gland fittings where a stainless steel collar on the shaft has a grahite cone in a rubber bellows that is under tension keeping the water out and they sometimes have a cooling/lub water feed but not in all cases. These do not drip but they do need to be vented if the boat should dry out to ensure there is water in the unit.
Regards
GrahamC
 
Re: Stern Gland overheating

I think there is cause for anxiety. If the gland is getting hot then theres a lot of friction which is bad in itself. Secondly the friction implies a large turning force on the gland - which in my boat was mounted on a bit of strong rubber tubing. It just might tear giving a very nasty leak
The original post said Sticky had loosened the packing nut without much effect.
It sounds as if the yard has packed the gland much too tight - perhaps using a packing section that was too large.
 
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Yachtmaster Instructor/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

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Sounds like he has done exactly what a yachtmaster instructor, or anyone who has a basic knowledge of these things should do. The next step is to repack it which, YI or not, anyone may not feel confident of doing the job correctly.

Looks to me like he's merely looking for some help with advice that he's been given by a so called expert, (engineer), which conflicts with his own judgement.

Thanks be to God that I have only experience but no official qualifications... seems to leaves me free to ask away.

I presume that there is absolutely nothing related to yachts and yachting which you would ever have a need to query?

Cheers

Richard
 
I met Tom Lewis (he wrote the song about the oars and walking inland... Was a submariner, he now lives in the Rockies about as far away from the sea as he can get! I have just repacked my stern gland and mine is water cooled, wont know till thursday when I get lifted back in if she leaks! oars crossed!
 
does this mean all your boats remain unbroken??? thats clever.... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
With the greatest respect to all of you who are having a pop at a YM Instructor, what on earth are you doing? YM Instructor means he can sail and instruct sailing to such a degree of competence that he can run a sea school. It does NOT mean that he is a marine engineer. Sticky asks for advice and gets abuse - whats going on gentlemen (and possibly ladies)? He has sufficient knowledge to ask for advice about his stern gland and deal with it at a basic level. What more do you want?

Its no good saying, 'I always maintain my own boat'. So do I, but that means, I mantain my boat, it says nothing about my sailing, or my ability as a YM Instructor and Examiner.
 
To quote Sticky :-
[been teaching sailing off and on for nearly 30 years. Currently using boat for charters, teaching and experience cruises. Specialities: cross channel cruises and long distance passages, heavy weather sailing if commitments allow. ]

IRMC /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
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