Surface drive stuffing tube transom exit hole

[Kez]

Rebuilding a 30 year old Dumas CF .40 deep vee and converting it to surface drive. I noticed it is customary to drill the stuffing tube exit hole over sized to about 1/2". I see it would allow for some small adjustment. But the hull will take on water if it is not moving. Is there anything wrong to drill the hole to 1/4" and glue the stuffing tube in place?

Thanks, k

 

[brad nichols]

That's why we put the pool noodles in. Or are you going electric, if so I would use one of the adjustable stinger struts and drill 1/4 hole in transom.

Brad

 

[Kez]

Brad,
I am going to put a period correct HP .40 in it ;-) I have never tried a stinger strut before. But from what I can see, it would allow for angular adjustment only. I cannot move the drive up and down.
For sure I will stuff a lot of pool noodles in the hull to keep it afloat. Still, I wonder if I need to drill a hole that big
Thanks, k

 

[john v]

the bigger hole will let you move the strut up and down , with the stinger you have if there is no provision for adjustment than you can seal the stuffing tube to the transom. the stingers i have allow you to adjust up and down movement. i use plumbers putty to seal an oversize hole so i can adjust at the pond

 

[brad nichols]

The stinger strut will allow up and down movement if you slot the hole but then you have a hole to let water in. If it is a nitro boat don't worry as long as you have lotion in the boat.

Brad

 

[Daniel's Racing]

Rebuilding a 30 year old Dumas CF .40 deep vee and converting it to surface drive. I noticed it is customary to drill the stuffing tube exit hole over sized to about 1/2". I see it would allow for some small adjustment. But the hull will take on water if it is not moving. Is there anything wrong to drill the hole to 1/4" and glue the stuffing tube in place?

Thanks, k

I would make s nice neat elongated slot not a giant round hole. If you want to be able to adjust the height you need movement. Don't do it and it is a biotch to do later. Got to pull the whole works apart.

Make a nice clean slot and test and tune with plumbers putty and if/when your done moving you fill it all in with white silicone.

 

[Kez]

Thanks all for your replies. I have never thought of using plumbers putty to seal the hole. I may give it a try. I have no idea what's in plumbers putty. Will it affect adhesion if I decided to seal up the hole later?

I am going to use a Speedmaster strut instead of a stinger drive. The center line of the hole will be 3/8" above the vee. I hope this will get me close to optimal setting without having to make much adjustments

 

[David Ashcroft]

nitro boaters never use anything to seal the transom strut hole...that's just the way we roll...

 

[Kevin Burns]

Don't worry about the hull taking on water. We used to run "Auto bailers" A auto bailer is a short tube with a ball bearing in it, when the boat is moving the ball is forced to the rear to open the tube and let water out of the boat, whn the boat stops the water forces the ball back in and closes the tube. More or less running with a huge hole at the transom. When the boat is moving the water will be expelled. This is good for when following behind in another boats rooster tail and such to get the water out of the hull. But with a slightly oversized hole for the surface drive, when stopped, water will fill in but I never noticed enough to actually swamp the boat. I usually drill the hole 1/64th larger than the tube. The adjustments are so minimal not a large hole is needed.

One other note. The term stuffing box on real boats comes from a box filled with grease to stop/seal water out. Simply use heavy grease at the transom to seal out the water "messy but works".

 

[FloridaScaleBoater]

Real boats have a box, filled with grease to keep the water out?
So all those years using flax packing was the wrong way to do it?