Yet another "shaft packing" thread but I need to pick some or your expert brains. My A4 has been running so well the past few years I've been pretty absent from the forum.
Last week I noticed my bilge pump running every 10 minutes and thought, "oh no, leak, sinking, distaster," etc. Turns out, my packing nut had a small stream coming out instead of drips. So, I replaced the packing.
I tried to get a 2-3 drips per second. But, by turning the nut only 1-degree or so either way, I got like 20-drips or zero drips. After a few tries, I got about 10 drips per second so I locked it down and ran the engine for a few minutes in the slip. When I stopped the engine, I had no drips. So I repeated the process. Again, when I stopped the engine, no drips. I could not physically crawl upside down under the fuel tank inside the lazarette one more time. It's not something a 65-year old is really capable of...lol... So, I left it, 1-degree from dripping, but, not dripping.
Questions: knowing that I'm merely 1-degree of a turn away from drips, but have none now, will I damage my shaft by running? Should I leave it and expect that the packing will likely loosen and I'll get a drip?
I measured the temp and it only got up to 114° on a 90° surrounding temp measurement running at full RPM for about 5-minutes.
Last week I noticed my bilge pump running every 10 minutes and thought, "oh no, leak, sinking, distaster," etc. Turns out, my packing nut had a small stream coming out instead of drips. So, I replaced the packing.
I tried to get a 2-3 drips per second. But, by turning the nut only 1-degree or so either way, I got like 20-drips or zero drips. After a few tries, I got about 10 drips per second so I locked it down and ran the engine for a few minutes in the slip. When I stopped the engine, I had no drips. So I repeated the process. Again, when I stopped the engine, no drips. I could not physically crawl upside down under the fuel tank inside the lazarette one more time. It's not something a 65-year old is really capable of...lol... So, I left it, 1-degree from dripping, but, not dripping.
Questions: knowing that I'm merely 1-degree of a turn away from drips, but have none now, will I damage my shaft by running? Should I leave it and expect that the packing will likely loosen and I'll get a drip?
I measured the temp and it only got up to 114° on a 90° surrounding temp measurement running at full RPM for about 5-minutes.
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