Where can I buy thin spanners ?

[alec]

Or do you have to make your own ?

Like many, my stern gland is diabolical to adjust and normal spanners don't make the job any easier because of the lock nuts.

I have asked around with little success.

I would be most grateful for any ideas.

Many Thanks in advance.


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[Freebee]

just grind yours down to the correct thickness

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[snowleopard]

try a cycle shop, cycle spanners are often stamped out of plate. i also have that type of spanner supplied with lawnmowers.

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[sailorman]

try a "chain wrench" similar to the thingy swmbo opens jars with

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[Avocet]

Plumbers merchants often carry a good range of thin stuff for all sorts of odd plumbing jobs. Failing that, get a cheap, nasty set and an angle grinder! BE careful not to get the spanner too hot while grinding or you'll soften it!

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[john_morris_uk]

I seem to remember the West Marine Catalogue used to list thin spanners for stern glands

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[Skyva_2]

We had 2 in. thin spanners made by a local toolmaker after looking around like you. Never regretted it.

I don't understand why they are not available, but I have never seen them in a chandler or engineer.

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[tcm]

thin spanners are notoriously poor fitting eg cycle spanners - as indeed are any open-ended spanners and you do not want to round off those nuts.

Grind down a ring spanner rather than an open spanner imho, and then an unground-down spanner (again, another ring spanner if poss) will be best to undo and redo the locknut.

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[webcraft]

How do you get ring spanners on? I presume you run the prop shaft through them and leave them in place permanently on the locknut and adjustment nut??? - taking care of course that they do not slip down onto the propshaft and become nastly whirling things.

Or am I missing something obvious here?

- Nick

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[MainlySteam]

Or am I missing something obvious here

Probably.

Most shaft glands do not use a threaded shaft tube with a gland follower mounted on the shaft screwing onto the end of the tube as is sometimes seen on very small boats of low power. If not of the dripless type, they normally use a gland follower adjusted by stud bolts each side of the shaft in a flange on the end of the shaft tube to compress the packing - for which ring spanners are the solution as there is often not room to get more than a few degrees of turn on a spanner when adjusting them.

John

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[tcm]

erm, ring spanners wd only work if you had tightened the sterngland by adjusting the tightness of the packing by tightening and loosening two nuts on a stud, which tightens a metal ring which inturn compresses the packing.

It also means that you have to leave the locknut in a position where it matches up with the p[rimary nut - or have special locknuts with a cutout so the flats could be out of line and still get the ring spanner on to one and then into the reveal, then onto the next.



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[webcraft]

Aha . . .

I have a very small boat (27ft) of low power (Volvo MD6A 10HP) . . . the tendency is for us raggies to forget that there's probably more stinkies on this forum. Never seen any other type of gland other than a Speedseal rubber sleeve thingy.

I use water pump wrenches . . . they seem to work OK, dedicated thin spanners would be better but there's only so much tool storage on a 27ft boat and anyway I have never had to adjust mine - it didn't leak last season, I repacked it this Winter and it ain't leaking now . . . just lucky I guess.

- Nick


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[flyingjunior]

Try Bacons dozen (www.baconsdozen.co.uk) an exellent chanderlers mainly for commercial fishing and is based in Lowestoft.
He stocks all sorts including stuff that is not made any longer.
If he doesn't have it then chances are that he knows a man who does and the best thing is that he does not insists on minimum orders.

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