4 Packing Rings or 5?

[TIGGER]

I am in the middle of a berkeley 12JC rebuild and was going to install the packing rings when i noticed there were only 4 in my rebuild kit where everything I have read says it takes five? Which one is correct?

[victorfb]

5 is correct. but you can run 4 or even 3 new ones with one or two of the old ones as long as you dont distort them much. trying to pack all 5 new ones is sometimes difficult anyhow. if you put 4 new one in and use one old one, the new ones will press against the old one and sort of seal it back to its proper preasure. if that makes sence.

[SmokinLowriderSS]

Whichever fits. My Berk F ump only uses 4, only hade 4 in it when I changed them. I have a spare in a drawer now, addable if I ever need to.

[IMPATIENT 1]

if your replacing the old style white ones with graphite rope seals, the graphites are thicker so it takes less off them than the white ones. i used 4 graphite ropes on my dominator pump, it had 5 white ropes in it before.

[TIGGER]

Well, the new ropes are different. The ones that came out were white, and the new ones are tanish green. The old ones were leaking pretty good before I lost the bearing. I will give them a try and see what happens.