You want to change the packing. It is very easy. Follow the shaft from the transmission to the bottom of the boat (inside) and you will find a huge nut (about the size of your closed fist). Loosen the nut to the point where it is no longer on the threads and you can move it up and down the shaft. This nut has the packing material inside. Get a packing extractor to pull out the old packing material (makes the job way easier). I got one at West Marine for $8.00-$10.00. It looks kind of like a corkscrew. It will only fit in one side of the nut, so you will know which side of the nut to pull the packing from. Make sure you buy the right size packing for your nut/shaft because only the correct width of packing will fit. My Supra Launch uses 1/4 inch packing, nut sure what yous will use. You can find out from the factory/dealer/other owner or you can pull out the old stuff and buy the size that looks like the old stuff. If it is too large it will not fit, too small and it will leak. The packing looks like rope dipped in wax. You want to cut the rope (packing) to lengths that will form a ring around the shaft (like a belt around your waist). I use 2 to 3 rings, you may differ. Cut the packing on about a 45 degree angle and stagger the cuts as you wrap your rings around the shaft and insert them into the packing nut. MAKE SURE YOU PUT PACKING GREASE ON THE PACKING BEFORE YOU PUT THE PACKING INTO THE NUT. Don't just wrap the shaft a few times with one big peice of packing rope -- it will leak. Tighten the nut back up a about a turn or two and put the boat back into the water. You will want to look at the nut and tighten it 1/4 turn at a time until water stops driping in the boat through the packing nut. The ideal packing will drip once every 10 seconds while the shaft is turning and not at all when in nuteral. It will take you about 30 minutes the first time you do this. Thats it. Good luck!
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