ORIGINAL: srw1960
The boat you bought is made in china not alot of consistency with there quality I have recently purchased parts from the same guy you bought the boat from and the parts are great but im not suprised to hear of your troubles......I think you have solved your own problem the brass stuffing tube not being sealed in good will definatly cause a leak..and there should be a very small amount of clearance between the flex shaft and the teflon liner..personaly I dont like to run teflon it can get hot and wrap up around the flex shaft...if you have solved the leak issue just run it like it is and have some fun the winter is the time to rip bad stuffing tubes out and re work them....
I purposely used a low bond glue to make the seal but not entomb the darned thing forever! The teflon indeed gets hot indicating friction. Just testing it for a couple blips of the throttle got the entire shaft up to 90 F.
I'm a little green behind the gills (my first serious boat) and I don't know the best thing to buy but would like to replace it. The current shaft is 3/16ths or .187. I'll read up at the Off Shore Electrics info page and try to figure it out. Thanks for the help.