I was curious if anyone has heard of a sealant for a stern tube packing gland for when you are changing out rings of packing. I work for a small tug company and while talking to another Fleet Engineer in the area he was talking about a product that Devcon makes and it is like a soap? you whip it up and it thins out, then you pump it into your stern tube and it hardens up until the shaft starts rotating and it frees back up and just works its way out of the stern tube. I cant remember the name of the product or if there is another company that makes something like that. We have a tug that we have to constantly pump the stern out of the water to change packing or add a ring. Real pain in the ass and if there is anything that will set up temporarily and wont damage the cutlass or packing.
Common to use MANY wax rings from toilet bowl rings to stuff into the outside of the gland. It just washes out after use. You (the diver) can lump a whole lot of wax together to make a pretty big wax ring.
as an alternative, next shipyard have an inflatable bladder installed in the tail shaft. You can totally stop water flow, and change packing with no need for diver.
We dont do it with a diver, the next to easiest way is to just tip the stern up on the tug and change the packing out. What I was told that there is a product out there that you pump into your packing gland through the water supply to the bearing that is liquid then hardens until the shaft begins moving. I am just looking for a way to do this without tipping the tug or getting a diver. I remember long ago when I was just starting out a guy packing his sea chest with grease and the packing gland when they would lay up the tug but I just cant remember for the life of me what it was.
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Stern Tube Packing Soap?
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