Thanks Jbrundahl, figured that Grangers would have something, but we don't have a Grangers locally here.  But I did find the Sneaky Pete that GT mentioned at a Carquest here, but have not had the opportunity to give it a try yet.  I will try it 1st and hopefully it will work for me, If not I might have to order the one from Grangers.

Nice "Your Mom", I have a hard time imagining as tightly packed as the packing rings are in there that any grease could penetrate through to keep them lubed, great idea if the grease would actually get in there.  Anyone else have any experience with this?

Griz

Thanks GT, was just at the hardware store and was thinking of a screw extracter, doesn't really matter the direction of the threads, but I never thought of a cork screw.  I take it this 27000 sneaky pete is a finer version of a actual cork screw?  And if the doesn't hurt anything, that is a great tip as well.  I was almost ready to take the boat to the lake and back it in and leave it on the trailer and start the bilge pumps and then start the engine leaving it in neutral and seeing if it would blow the packing rings out.

I will try the cork screw and heat 1st and will give feed back what the outcome is.

Thanks again,
Griz