Well...I just changed my packing today. I used the guide from the maintenance section. It was pretty much only good for three things. 1. show me what order the teflon/washers go in the jam nut. 2. show me what length to cut the packing (4.5 inches). 3. Show me how many drips to adjust to when finished (1 per 5 seconds). Other than that, I pretty much did it exactly as Bitzco.
Disclaimer- There are a lot of "So to Speaks" in the following so I will get it out of the way now.
Step 1. Remove engine box and all floor panels (X22) to get access to the jam nut/shaft.
Step 2. Remove cotter pin
Step 3. Completely un-screw the male portion of the white jam nut from the female portion.
Step 4. Loosen both of the hose clamps on the jam nut side of the rubber hose.
(note- one of my hose clamps was very rusty and I ended up using my dremel tool to cut it off. Then found a perfect replacement at Home Depot)
Step 5. Work the female portion of the jam nut out of the rubber hose. (This took some work...NO TOOLS!! Just grab hard and rotate back and forth until it releases.
Step 6. Push both pieces of the jam nut as far away from the rubber hose as possible then push the packing out from the back side. I opted to use the cotter pin to do this, just bent it a little and poked (carefully) all round the packing. Note- my old teflon was in pretty bad shape and it seemed that the cotter pin would poke through the teflon rather than push it out. So after a couple of minutes of this I chose to grab the jam nut and put pressure against the shaft and then slide the jam nut towards the rubber hose. Then released pressure, slide jam nut away from rubber hose, rotate, again apply pressure against the shaft and slide towards the rubber hose again. After a few attempts, it all came loose.
Step 7. Cut 2 pieces of teflon packing. (I cut mine just a hair longer than 4.5).
Step 8. There are many ways to skin a cat, here is what I did. Push entire contents of jam nut (washer - teflon - washer - teflon) up against the male portion of jam nut. Remove the piece of teflon closest to the male jam nut (also recognized as the piece of teflon between the two washers. Push both washers together and use the last piece of OLD teflon to hold them against the male jam nut. I figured this would keep them out of my way while I worked the first piece of new teflon into the female portion of the jam nut. Note where the two ends of the teflon meet. (I placed a dot on the jam nut with a sharpie). Now remove the old piece of teflon that is holding the the 2 washers out of the way and slide the first washer down to the new teflon. Wrap the second piece of new teflon around the shaft. Make sure the ends meed on the opposite side of your marked spot on the jam nut. Slide the second washer down.
Step 9. Now the hard part. With all the new packing in the female portion, the male portion is going to be hard to get in. (ok...so to speak). Here is what I did. First, manual labor. Grab the female portion and push very hard against the male portion. Rotate and repeat for a couple of times. What i did next may be risky, but it worked well for me. I grabbed 2 pipe wrench type pliers, pushed the male/female portions of the jam nuts together, then used the wrenches to squeeze the two together. After about 3 squeezes, it pushed all the way in. I then used a small amount of boot lube around the outside of the jamnut/inside of rubber hose and reinstalled and tightened hose clamps. Then thread the jam nut together and reinstall/bend the cotter pin.
Step 10. If haven't done this part yet, but...put boat in water and adjust packing, with boat just barely in gear. Looking for 1 drip every 5 seconds (from the maintenance guide).
Sorry for the lenghty post, but hopefully it will help someone out there accomplish this maintenance on there own. I would have to say that I was very carefull not to nick/scratch the shaft itself or puncture the rubber hose as this would probably be a BAD thing. Good luck when you do this...It doesn't take much mechanical experience just some patience. Hit me up if you have questions. I will update when I put my boat in the water and adjust the packing. (probably next weekend). Flyn2001
