Dent in Stuffing tube

[Todd Fleury]

So here is the deal. I pulled my flex shaft from my boat, and as I was setting the boat down, I accidentally put a dent in the stuffing tube. Is there a way to get the dent out without replacing the tube? If I need to replace the tube, what is the best way without doing damage to the paint?

 

[Kez]

Find a steel bearing ball just a couple of thous smaller than the ID of your stuffing tube. Put some heavy oild or grease into the tube and push the ball through the kink. I have been using this technique to take out the kinks in the tail boom of my helis. It works better than freezing water in the tube,

It is easier to do this with the stuffing tube not attached to the hull. Not sure how easily you can do this without putting stress on the hull.

To remove the stuffing tube, I stick a 15W soldering iron into the stuffing tube to soften the epoxy. You can then slide the tube out.

 

[SayMikey]

First off what size shaft are you running? How far down is the dent? Ive used a Craftsman screw drivers Phillips #2 the long one and worked a complete 90 degree bend back into a straight tube. A pic is worth a thousand words

 

[Todd Fleury]

I am running a 1/4" flex shaft. I can't reach the dent with a screwdriver. I was able to get an old flex shaft in there to free up the room. Now the flex shaft fits. I'll replace it after the season. The boat is getting torn apart and redone then anyway.

 

[Mark Stein]

If you have room when you rebuild, you can install an outer tube then your normal stuffing box and clamp at the top end. That way if it gets damaged its easy to remove the inner tube and replace

 

[Daniel's Racing]

Always sleeve the stuffing tube in 11/32. With the stuffing tube locktited in the strut the tube should be able to slide back and forth freely in the sleeve to make strut adjustments easier.

Then like mentioned above replacement is pretty easy.

Doesn't hurt to sleeve the entire length doubled up so it won't bend or dent. The single layer tubes if they are very long like riggers and hydro's often have exposed are too easy to get bent when plopping them in the retreive boat half full of water like they do.

 

[Charles Perdue]

If you decide to take the old stuffing tube out, get an old peice of drive cable, heat it up and slide it into the stuffing tube, give it about 10 seconds, the stuffing tube will slide out like it is greased. Without hurting the paint or epoxy.

Charles