Slow drip down where stuffing box is. Nut is stuck

[RickieT]

Greetings,

Trying to tighten the big nut to slow down a drip and it seems to be be stuck from lack of use? Is there something to spray on there to get this nut to turn???? It's tight down there any ideas on which tools are needed???

Many thanks,

Rick

[mjk1040]

Rickie; One side has left handed threads, I believe it the starboard engine side. So has you are trying to loosen it you are actually tight-ing it. Any real good penetrate oil will work. think they are 2" or bigger nuts. And yes it is very hard to get any leverage on a wrench in that area. You may need some right handed pipe wrenches.

[Viper]

Are you loosening the jam nut first? Try loosening the small nut behind the packing nut first, then you should be able to adjust the packing nut. Also consider that some applications have reverse threads, so you might be tightening instead of loosening. I can't recall if this is the case in that vintage Mariner though.

[waybomb]

My mariner has one left hand and one right hand.
36 " pipe wrench work wonders

[tomschauer]

All good points, another is the nut is already bottomed out and the packing is ready to be replaced.

[SanJuanDreamer]

Oh man...that's a PITA.
All above about the two nuts is true.
Get two vise-grip with the rounded jaws.
Here is an example of what it looks like...the round jaw type, not the other. ..
http://www.emedco.com/irwin-vise-gripr- ... =vise+grip
If they leak after you tightened to a 4 drip per minute flow, you may have: old packing, bent shaft or corrosion on the shaft.
Been there, done that and didn't want a T-Shirt...it sucks bad. Sorry to hear of your pain...

[RickieT]

Man I'm hoping it's not packed all the way. Going to check the maintenance records since I bought the boat last summer. Going to spray with PB Buster and let it sit and see if I can get it loose...it's the starboard side...

[mjk1040]

Rickie; It's left hand threaded my man. You have got to try and loosen it in opposite direction as normal. Lefty Loosey Righty Tighty DOES NOT APPLY HERE!

[km1125]

I don't like the way pipe wrenches mar up the nuts, so I bought a couple of these wrenches and use a short length of pipe to get more leverage. It is a Ridgid 31305 E110 Offset Hex Wrench. I bought them from Lowes or HD, but Amazon also carries them. I thiink I paid $20 each but that was a long time ago.

rigid_adj_wrench.jpg

DON'T try to use these... they are not strong enough to loosen or retighten the nuts

brasscraft_wrench.jpg

[mjk1040]

10-4 on the wrenches! Never saw the red one years ago when I needed one. And u r correct on the silver one. Only thing that one is good for is setting the packing nut.