Stuffing Box

From Chris Harker:

I've read other people's tales about replacing the packing gland hose. It sounded like an ordeal with no easy solution. But I've found a method that made it fairly easy. Once the tools and supplies are in place the hose can be installed in an hour or so.

Tools & supplies: 

• Original packing gland, removed from boat, cleaned off, with old hose cut away
• New hose
  
• 2" dia softwood dowel, a foot long (my big box store had poplar)
  
• 1-1/4" dia hardwood dowel, 9 to 12" long (oak in this case)
  
• 1" Forstner bit, auger, or spade bit (in descending order of preference)
  
• Thin hand saw (Japanese pull saws are great)
  
• 2-1/8" hole saw
  
• Belt sander or similar
  
• Random piece of timber: 2x6 or similar
  
• Dead blow hammer or similar non-damaging but heavy pounding object
  
• A long, skinny scrap of wood: six to nine inches long 3/4" square in section or similar (I used a piece of quarter-round trim from my kindling pile)

Procedure: 

• Drill a hole 6 to 8" deep, axially in the center of the large dowel but not through the full length. Cut slots radially (4 at 45° angles) in the resulting hollow cylinder to create eight separate fingers. 
• Sand a taper on the end of the hardwood dowel: about 3/4 to 7/8" dia at the end, with the length of the taper about equal to the end diameter.
• Slide the hose onto the large dowel with the end of the hose even with the slotted end of the dowel. Hammer the tapered small dowel into the axial hole until the fingers spread enough to expand the hose to 2-1/4" ID.
• Slide the packing gland onto the small dowel until the end that receives the hose rests on the wood fingers. If necessary saw off the end of the small dowel so it doesn't protrude from the packing gland. Screw the nut into the packing gland to protect the threads.
• Support the ends of the random timber with open space beneath and drill a 2-1/8" hole through it. Insert the uncovered end of the large dowel through the 2-1/8" hole until the hose rests on the timber. Holding the gland firmly against the wood, hammer it into the hose. The wood should hold the hose open wide enough for the gland to fit in. Pound the bronze in and it will drive the wood partway out.
• Once the packing gland is in the hose all the way up to the flange saw off the part of the large dowel that sticks out of the house. Put the gland and hose back over the hole in the timber and use the hammer and the skinny scrap of wood as a drive punch to push the small dowel the rest of the way through the hose. The wood fingers will fall out with the dowel.

All that remains is to put hose clamps on the gland end of the hose and go on with the rest of the installation.