Home Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Otis Conventional Packing Replacement

I have very limited experience with changing packings and have only done old Dover and a few Thyssens. I started a packing change on an old Otis Conventional today, I was careful to match each piece to it's replacement from the kit and stacked them in the proper order. Once I got the new ones on, I reinstalled the top flange, but the flange is about 1/2" or so above the packing pieces. I'm not sure why the gap is there as we replaced exactly what we removed.

Try cracking the bleeder on the jack and then snugging the bolts down. Sometimes you don't get the first piece all the way down cuz the packing seals around the piston and up against the stuffing box. Then the oil is in the way of the packing going all the way down

Thanks for the response. To be clear, we were able to get the packing pieces down on the piston. The issue is that when I go to bolt the flange down, it sits about 1/2" above the new packing. There's no seal between the flange and the packing. It's like there's a piece missing but we 100% replaced each piece we had removed.

Do you have any pictures

I can get some in the morning

Assuming you set the old stack beside the new stack and looked for any issues?

All else fails, give Texacone or Gorman a call. (assuming you got it directly from one of them)

Sorry I've been sick this weekend and I don't think I was comprehending what you were saying correctly. Are you saying that everything goes back together correctly but you just noticed the packing doesn't fill the stuffing box to the top ? So that 1/2" space you're referring to is inside the stuffing box under the retaining ring/flange?

Correct, yes

O, I've seen that on a bunch of different packings. I don't know if it's correct, I'm sure someone on here will, but as long as it's a pressure balance style packing and you're not doing a split packing or using round rod it shouldn't be an issue. Once the packing is in and the system pressurizes even in the down direction their will be enough pressure to keep those seals from moving up and down in the stuffing box. On a few jobs I've had where the gap was large I've left the old lanter/ bearing in or used it as a spacer. I don't recommend doing that but just saying it can be done.

Thank you, this is exactly the info I was looking for. I appreciate you brother.

Any time. I'm on a 9.5" packing today with the machine room on the 2nd landing. Wait till you get the pleasure of one of these. The piston surface area makes it buoyant and it won't overcome the vertical column of oil in the oil line so it just bobs in the cylinder. Lol so much fun

I love those. I've often had to jump on the top of pistons to get em to finish going down. My preferee method is jumping the down normal and using high speed down valve to really open it up to let oil through.

OP, I repacked a canton a few months ago. Simple single stage head, I've torn apart and repacked 50 plus cantons. This one was a roped hydro, blue jack. When I put it back together the same exact thing you ran into. There was an inch of void space with nothing in it in the head. I double checked against what came out, the same. Checked against the mechanical drawings, they showed it the same. Bearing ring, packing, wiper. But there was an inch of unused space. I called canton and they confirmed no issue. I put it back in service and it was all good