Grease fitting or no grease fitting ?

[john]

I’m installing a new drive line in a boat. I’ve seen grease fitting in shaft logs. I’ve got a stainless grease fitting. Put it in?? Also where to put it in? Right where the shaft packing material is is my thought.

Topic

[Bill Fuller]

Grease fittings

John,

As I stated above, be careful with the break-in. first time out be sure to have lots of time to do the break-in.
Keep real close track of the temperature of the packing gland. Stop if need to let it cool. As the break-in come along, spray the backing gland with water to keep it cool. Cool meaning below about 140 degrees.

Nothing like some pictures to point out all the bad areas on your boat. I will confess, as an old guy, I simply do not have the energy or ability any more to keep the boat pristine. I always thought I did a reasonable job, but these picture show where I need some work.

Couplers are always a problem and I try to knock off all the old paint and rust and repaint every year. same with everything else. I hadn’t noticed all the oil on the catch bottle before, I need to clean it. FYI, it has about 1/2-3/4 of an inch of oil in it and has not been emptied, EVER! Thousands of hours and at least 10 years.

The Bertram 28 is a great little boat but the bilge area is always wet. everything gets in there no mater how hard you try. After fishing, the bilge is always full of blood, etc. I clean and flush thoroughly and bleach but if you carefully on the center bulkhead you can see what is almost certainly a blood line where the bilge was not cleaned quite high enough.

OK, enough. Everyone be safe.

Bill

[Tony Athens]

Audax–Then & now

Two pics–20 yrs and 6500 hrs apart

[john]

Here is a picture

1 user thanked author for this post.

Scotth

[john]

I went with the grease fitting. I will post some pictures of the install. Just have to put the packing material in.

[Bill Fuller]

Grease fittings

Hi Tony,
Here are a few pictures as requested. I must say I am not very proud of the way it looks. But they do have 20 years of marine age.
One thing I will mention is that I have not been able to do my normal winter/spring cleaning and maintenance.
I have had two rather major surgeries since the middle of December which has slowed me up a bit.
Each off-season I pressure wash, de-rust, and touch-up all paint. as well as all my normal routine stuff, which I will list for those interested.
1. Change coolant
2. remove seawater pumps, inspect and replace impellers
3. Change fuel filters. I only have to change them once a year, regardless of hours. Clean tank, clean
purchase place. 10 micron on primary, 2 micron on engine.
4. Change alternator belts.
5. Change transmission fluid.
6. For me oil change is not once a year, done as needed.
7. This year the valves will be adjusted.
8. pressure wash, clean and paint as needed. As you can see from the photos, these are needed.
Again not too proud of the packing gland, shaft, coupler area, in my boat this is a very wet area, and again once a year it all gets wire brushed and painted.
Some background on my boat:
1975 Bertram 28, purchased in early 1991 with 260 HP Mercruiser, 350 Chevies, which I ran almost 10 years, about 3,500 hours. On January 8, 2000, I ran the boat to Oxnard and it was put in Tony’s shop. The repower was complete and back to San Diego on July 15, 2000. And the rest is history as they say.
Currently the motors have 6,645 hours which translates to about 12,000-16,000 gallons of fuel per motor.
The first 10+ years when I was working, I put about 250-350 hours per year, Since that time closer to 500-600+ hours per year. What you see in the photos are the original everything. No repairs or replacement of anything other that the routine stuff mentioned. Fresh water flush does wonders.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
Bill

1 user thanked author for this post.

Scotth

[Bill Fuller]

Will Do.

[Tony Athens]

Bill,

Next time on the boat, snap a pic or 2 of your engine room and packings…………Post a few pics of what things look like “close to 20 yrs later…

Tony

[Bill Fuller]

A couple of items. This is in relation to engine drive shaft packings, not rudders.
First I am a big fan of the grease fittings. Tony built mine 20 years ago.
Note that his pictures show Teflon packing. Be sure to use it or at least Teflon impregnated packing. And then use pure Teflon grease.
These will run nearly dripless once broken in. And they will be dripless at the dock.
Tony’ pictures show the break-in procedure on the lathe. Care must be taken during the break-in period to be sure not to overheat the packing. If done in the boat, be sure to monitor the packing gland temperature with an IR gun. I have been getting 8-10 years between repackings. And that is on a plaining hull boat at 500-600 hours per year. The break-in can be slow, so be prepared to spend some time. I like to idle at first, slowly increase speed, slow down when temp rise above about 120 degrees F. and continue as long as convenient. Usually on the first offshore trip after re-packing, I monitor almost continuously when running at speed. I spray the gland with water to keep the temp below about 140 until everything settles down. It is well worth the trouble and then you are good for a very long time. Also, I only re-grease about once a year. As the packing ages, the greasing interval may need to be increased.
Hope this helps.
Bill

[Tony Athens]

Every packing is different as to the actual packing material location and where the hose is……..It’s not a “one size fits all” answer.. IMO, ideally the grease would be injected on top of the deepest or farthest aft ring. Sometimes, “ideal” cannot always be accomplished.

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Tony

[Author]

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