[Public-List] George - hexagonal part

[Matthew Hay]

That hexagonal part is what I was presuming to be the top of a stuffing
box?  I really do not know what it is.  Here, I have added a more revealing
angle http://s969.photobucket.com/albums/ae174/MattRHay/ There are two nuts
one thin hexagonal one which is beneath the top big thick hexagonal one and
they are tightened together.  If you can blow up the new photo that I added
you will see what I mean.  This is why I am so confused.  It does not appear
to be a traditional stuffing box, and there is no tube in sight?  Perhaps,
the tube has been long gone since before I bought the boat?  Or perhaps this
is some strange stuffing box created by someone before I owned the boat?
The one thing I do know is that it is not working and is corroding the hell
out of my bronze tiller post.  Don Lang sent me pictures of his (pre-liner)
stuffing box with top nut removed and it does not seem to resemble my
strange contraption.  I am going to have to cut an access panel from one of
the cockpit lockers and see if I can get a wrench around it and start the
removal of the rudder.  I am thinking, as Don also pointed out to me, that
if I remove that big hexagonal nut I will see were the corrosion started and
probably find that it continues down through the nuts.   I will keep a photo
journal if I have any immediate success worth recording.  I always new this
particular Alberg was extra special!

 1276718065.0