Permalube gimbal bearing?

holorinhal

holorinhal

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I baught a new gimbalbearing from my local mercruiser dealer. It is a genuine merc/quicksilver product. The service tec said that they changed the bearing to a sealed unit and no need to align the grease hole and to plug with provided plug. He also said there was no need for t grease seal any longer. Is this the case not to install a grease seal with the permalube(sealed gimbal bearing) bearing?...Hal
 
Bondo

Bondo

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

Ayuh,... That's Right...
 
slag

slag

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

Call me old fashioned, but I've always thought it would be best to have a greasable gimbal bearing instead of a sealed one. Am I off on my thinking in regards to my opinion here?

I just recently replaced my gimbal bearing and purposely bought a greasable one and put a squirt or two in every week or so. Not necessary??
 
zbnutcase

zbnutcase

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

slag said:
Call me old fashioned, but I've always thought it would be best to have a greasable gimbal bearing instead of a sealed one. Am I off on my thinking in regards to my opinion here?

I just recently replaced my gimbal bearing and purposely bought a greasable one and put a squirt or two in every week or so. Not necessary??
Click to expand...

As 99% of boat owners do not have their boat serviced on a regular basis, whats the point of having greasable bearings, u-joints, etc...Chances are good it will be damaged by water long before they wear out.
 
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captk

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

Before 1970ish they were not grease able and worked pretty well unless you got them wet. Been a while but didn't they have non grease able u-joints too, late 80s maybe?
 
T

TilliamWe

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

captk said:
Before 1970ish they were not grease able and worked pretty well unless you got them wet. Been a while but didn't they have non grease able u-joints too, late 80s maybe?
Click to expand...

That's all Mercruiser uses today, as far as I know. Alphas have been that way a long time, Bravos have been that way some time after 1997 to current.

I like to grease stuff too. But then I think of my 1990 Cavalier. 9 years old, 185,000 miles on it, permalube wheel bearings, and they never failed. My current Impala has NO greaseable joints or bearings of any kind, and it's got 133k on it, and it's doing fine.
 
H

HT32BSX115

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

Yeah I tend to agree. Just about all front wheel drive cars and 4x4 trucks use non-greaseable front wheel bearings.

Keep up with regular service that includes inspecting the u-joints and you'll see water intrusion long before it damages the bearing
 
Don S

Don S

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

The grease seal is there for one reason only. To keep dirt out of the bearing. Since it's a sealed bearing, dirt can't get into it. You do the math.
 
holorinhal

holorinhal

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

So in the manual it said to put the notches to the inside. is that the inside toward the transom or facing the inside of the bellhousing or facing out away from the boat. When I pulled the old one the notches were facing out away from the boat or towards Me that I could visually see them?
 
Don S

Don S

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Re: Permalube gimbal bearing?

Install the gimbal bear so you can not see the slots. That's the easy way to say it.
You should also be able to see the white dot on the outer ring.
 
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