That was me who suggested air in the racor. I had similar problems and continue to. My solution was to simply make venting the filter easier and more effective. If I vent every month or two then not enough air ever accumulates to cause problems.
https://youtu.be/H-GI38vE4hQ?t=2m50s Air is getting in because of the negative pressure from the engine sucking fuel from the tank. An alternative solution which I have considered, is installing an electric fuel pump near the tank. This would pressurize the system, hopefully minimizing the amount of air getting sucked in. Josh Muckley S/V Sea Hawk 1989 C&C 37+ Solomons, MD On Sun, Dec 2, 2018, 9:40 PM DON JONSSON via CnC-List <[email protected] wrote: > Stuffing Box Issues > > In the last week we took the boat out of the water, put on a new Campbell > Sailor prop., pulled the shaft and put in a new cutlass bearing, and > repacked the stuffing box. > > Considering it is a boat all went reasonably well. As an aside we are > very happy with the prop in the short test we did. More power and way > smoother than the two bladed prop we took off. Way smoother. > > However, this was my first attempt at doing the stuffing box and it is not > going well. Previously I always paid someone, perhaps a lesson there. I'm > hoping someone can give some insight. > > We used flax rings 1/4 inch which seem to fit well into the nut. They > were cut at 45 degrees and the cuts placed at different positions around > the shaft. Before being pushed in. We used 4 rings. > > At the moment it is dripping slightly when not running. When starting out > the box drips slowly when at idle whether in gear or not. As you power up > it continues to drip but as the box warms up the dripping slows down, > causing the box to get warmer and warmer. Ultimately the dripping stops > and things get hot. When you stop and go back to idle and let it cool down > it ultimately starts to drip again. You can loosen the nut so that when > not running you are getting a steady drip, but when you power up the > process repeats itself. > > So the question is what have I done wrong? > > Dirty Fuel Blues > > In a previous email I talked about fuel problems we were having that > seemed odd. Odd in that we thought it was dirty fuel but the primary > filter wasn't that dirty. And we ultimately got the engine running again > without changing the filter. Someone suggested that it could be air in the > top of the Racor 500 filter and then when running the engine while motor > sailing if you had enough heel you would get bubbles in the fuel line which > would cause the problem. And that scenario of motor sailing is what was > going on shortly before the engine died. Sure enough we had air in the > top of the filter, which we thought could have been from not properly > filling it when we recently (previous to the problem) changed the filter. > So we drained the tank, sucked out everything on the bottom so that it is > reasonably clean, changed the filters and filled to the top the Racor 500. > Everything runs fine now, except the top of Racor housing continues to get > about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of air in it. We have checked lines, tightened > everything that can be tightened, etc. All the fittings have been re-taped > and tightened, etc. > > That air has to be coming from somewhere, right? And we think that was > the cause of our engine quitting. > > Any ideas? > > As always, thanks. > > Don > Andante, C&C 34, Victoria > > Sent from my iPad > _______________________________________________ > > Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each > and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - > use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > > On Dec 2, 2018 9:40 PM, "DON JONSSON via CnC-List" <[email protected]> wrote: Stuffing Box Issues In the last week we took the boat out of the water, put on a new Campbell Sailor prop., pulled the shaft and put in a new cutlass bearing, and repacked the stuffing box. Considering it is a boat all went reasonably well. As an aside we are very happy with the prop in the short test we did. More power and way smoother than the two bladed prop we took off. Way smoother. However, this was my first attempt at doing the stuffing box and it is not going well. Previously I always paid someone, perhaps a lesson there. I'm hoping someone can give some insight. We used flax rings 1/4 inch which seem to fit well into the nut. They were cut at 45 degrees and the cuts placed at different positions around the shaft. Before being pushed in. We used 4 rings. At the moment it is dripping slightly when not running. When starting out the box drips slowly when at idle whether in gear or not. As you power up it continues to drip but as the box warms up the dripping slows down, causing the box to get warmer and warmer. Ultimately the dripping stops and things get hot. When you stop and go back to idle and let it cool down it ultimately starts to drip again. You can loosen the nut so that when not running you are getting a steady drip, but when you power up the process repeats itself. So the question is what have I done wrong? Dirty Fuel Blues In a previous email I talked about fuel problems we were having that seemed odd. Odd in that we thought it was dirty fuel but the primary filter wasn't that dirty. And we ultimately got the engine running again without changing the filter. Someone suggested that it could be air in the top of the Racor 500 filter and then when running the engine while motor sailing if you had enough heel you would get bubbles in the fuel line which would cause the problem. And that scenario of motor sailing is what was going on shortly before the engine died. Sure enough we had air in the top of the filter, which we thought could have been from not properly filling it when we recently (previous to the problem) changed the filter. So we drained the tank, sucked out everything on the bottom so that it is reasonably clean, changed the filters and filled to the top the Racor 500. Everything runs fine now, except the top of Racor housing continues to get about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of air in it. We have checked lines, tightened everything that can be tightened, etc. All the fittings have been re-taped and tightened, etc. That air has to be coming from somewhere, right? And we think that was the cause of our engine quitting. Any ideas? As always, thanks. Don Andante, C&C 34, Victoria Sent from my iPad _______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
_______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
