1994 SN Excessive water in bilge

[1994nautique]

NEW OWNER - 1994 SN is taking on, what I consider, excessive amounts of water while parked. I have not had her on a lift as previous owner did. To say it has rained a lot this summer would be an understatement and the was what I blamed first. I did find that the exhaust hoses were very fatigued and one had a hole in it. In the process of removing the exhaust hoses, I found someone before me pried the former hoses off damaging the fiberglass Invertaflow muffler. I have taken this to a fiberglass master for repair and ordered new hoses.
This all took place Sunday. The boat did not move from Sunday-Tuesday, as the exhaust hoses had been removed. Not stored in the boat house and NO RAIN. Wednesday morning, as I got ready to tow her to the landing to trailer her to remove the muffler, she was FULL of water. The automatic bilge pump was not on. Turned it on on pumped it all out. After draining, I checked the packing on the drive shaft. Normal dripping there. I have not checked the exhaust hose to the back of the boat for damage yet.
Where could this be coming from?

[charlesml3]

Possibly the rudder packing?

You're going to have to get it dried out, drop it in and grab a flashlight to see where it's coming in.

-Charles

[1994nautique]

Thanks Charles!
We just put her back in the water and I think it may be the drive shaft packing. Its dripping at a really steady pace. Im going to try tightening but it may need new packing. I'll post a video of the "drip rate" so I and others can learn!!

[charlesml3]

Thanks Charles!
We just put her back in the water and I think it may be the drive shaft packing. Its dripping at a really steady pace. Im going to try tightening but it may need new packing. I'll post a video of the "drip rate" so I and others can learn!!

OK, stop where you are for just a minute. Is it dripping or pouring? If it's doing anything less than a steady stream leave it alone. This type of drive shaft packing is designed to drip. If it doesn't it'll heat up and wreck the fitting.

More than one owner here has sought to "fix" this and reach some magical number of drips per minute only to find out they over-tightened it and burned up the fitting.

-Charles

[1994nautique]

OK, stop where you are for just a minute. Is it dripping or pouring? If it's doing anything less than a steady stream leave it alone. This type of drive shaft packing is designed to drip. If it doesn't it'll heat up and wreck the fitting.

More than one owner here has sought to "fix" this and reach some magical number of drips per minute only to find out they over-tightened it and burned up the fitting.

-Charles

Thank you Charles.
Tried to upload a 3 second video (but this site rejected it) to show it's as steady as a drip can be without being a constant stream of water. I am very fortunate to have three long time Nautique owners right here close that I will get advice from after they take a look and before I tighten anything.

[charlesml3]

A steady drip = Leave it alone. You'll get more water in the boat with people getting in wet after skiing.

A steady drip wouldn't put 2 gallons in the boat in 24 hours. That's nothing. The bilge pumps can easily handle that.

-Charles