Hello,
I have twin DP-SM's and I normally pull the outdrives every year to inspect and grease the gimbal. This year, the grease in one of the gimbals looked like it had some water in it. I normally use a blue grease and the grease that was coming out of the gimbal was milky brown. The gimbal looks fine (shiny metal, spins freely with no catching, etc). The bellows look fine and I believe I replaced them 3 or so years ago. I do not see any any rust / water marks on the inside of the bellows or on the u-joints or even the gimbal. My best guess at this point is a little water is getting in through the grease tube. When I connect the grease gun I see some grease coming out of the bearing on the right side (closest to the grease tube) and very little coming out on the left side. I am getting a lot of grease coming out from behind the gimbal (between the seal and the gimbal on the right side). I am thinking either the seal is bad or the bearing is not pushed tight up agains the seal. Has anyone else seen grease coming out from behind the bearing and if so what is the most probable cause (bad seal, or bearing not fully seated)? Any suggestions on fixing it or should I just leave it?
Here's a picture of the gimbal.
Thanks
Tim
I have twin DP-SM's and I normally pull the outdrives every year to inspect and grease the gimbal. This year, the grease in one of the gimbals looked like it had some water in it. I normally use a blue grease and the grease that was coming out of the gimbal was milky brown. The gimbal looks fine (shiny metal, spins freely with no catching, etc). The bellows look fine and I believe I replaced them 3 or so years ago. I do not see any any rust / water marks on the inside of the bellows or on the u-joints or even the gimbal. My best guess at this point is a little water is getting in through the grease tube. When I connect the grease gun I see some grease coming out of the bearing on the right side (closest to the grease tube) and very little coming out on the left side. I am getting a lot of grease coming out from behind the gimbal (between the seal and the gimbal on the right side). I am thinking either the seal is bad or the bearing is not pushed tight up agains the seal. Has anyone else seen grease coming out from behind the bearing and if so what is the most probable cause (bad seal, or bearing not fully seated)? Any suggestions on fixing it or should I just leave it?
Here's a picture of the gimbal.
Thanks
Tim