Drive shaft packing adjustment

[drgibson]

I've been reading all the threads about replacing the drive shaft packing for the past hour but still haven't seen the answer to my question. I need to know what the drip rate is suppose to be AND is that when in neutral, in gear, or running wide open?
I have the white nylon type housing and felt mine was leaking too much so I tightened it one turn. I'm defining a "turn" as turning the nut until the next hole on the nut is lined up with the hole on the housing, approximately 1/6 of a full revolution. I went from about one drip every one to two seconds to no drip at all while in neutral, no shaft rotation. I backed it off one turn and left it at the one drip a second but that seems loose to me, however no drip is too tight. FYI, the nut is too tight to be turned by hand so I'm using a very large pair of slip joint pliers if that makes a difference. Also, I noticed that in either setting, a little water would squirt out along the shaft when the shaft would stop turning after being in gear at idle speed.
The Tige is a 1998 2100i with a Marine Power 350.
Thanks in advance.

[dogbert]

A drop or two every minute is about right. Here's the instructions spharis put together for repacking your stuffing box. It includes the recommended drip rate for the type of packing you use.

[drgibson]

A drop or two every minute is about right. Here's the instructions spharis put together for repacking your stuffing box. It includes the recommended drip rate for the type of packing you use.

I've read spharis's article and it is excellent for the new dripless GFO packing that he used but there are other types of packing that need more water for cooling. My main question is about if the drip rate is set with the shaft turning or with the trans in neutral. Spharis didn't mention that in his article. I assume it's done in neutral but I want to be sure.

[dogbert]

I had to replace mine because it came defective from the factory (used one strand instead of two). The mechanic that worked on it went to the lake with me to determine where my boat was leaking. When we looked at it, he told me that it was while it was with the prop turning in lock forward.