angus99
Guru
Trying to decide if I need to stop for maintenance on our trip north or if I can take care of this myself. The stuffing boxes on our DF 44 are leaking pretty badly at rest or underway. Until now, the bilge pump system the PO rigged up had been handling the 1 gallon or so of leakage we were seeing every 2 hours. But the pump, or it's circuit, has failed. (I posted about this in the electrical section). Now we're having to empty the collection basin every 3 hours or so with a bucket. I tightened the port stuffing box (they're the kind with two bolts that draw one section into the other) and it slowed the leak a bit, but I was leery of going too tight. I took the temps on both boxes underway today and both were in the 114 -119 range.
Should I tighten them further to try to stop the leakage and continue to monitor the temps or take a day off our trip and take it to a pro?
Should I tighten them further to try to stop the leakage and continue to monitor the temps or take a day off our trip and take it to a pro?