How many strokes of the....

[Boomyal]

...grease gun should I do for my hydro mechanical swivel bearing?....and how often should it be greased? I cannot find anything in a manual I have about this.

The truth of the matter is that I had that drive put on in 1979 and never even knew there was a zerk fitting back there until a few years ago. I had the drive gone thru for general principals, circa 2005, so I know it got greased then and I have given it a squirt or two since then. I know it will go along time and a lot of hours without it (already proved that) but I don't want to over do it or blow any seals.

 

[Nivekt]

Re: How many strokes of the....

Hey Boom, my manual only states to lube that swivel bearing every 50 hours. Doesnt say how much. Howard Sterndrive stated in this post: http://forums.iboats.com/omc-i-o-inboard-engines-outdrives/stringer-800-a-609917.html#post4251073 to hit it with 6 shots.

My grease zerk coupler on my gun is too thick to get in to that hole to grease the zerk. I greased the bearing last time I had the upper separated from the lower. What coupler are you using that is skinny enough to fit in there? Got a link to buy it anywhere?

 

[Boomyal]

Re: How many strokes of the....

Nivekt, I just went out to grease my swivel zerk. I have a non-labled, generic parts house grease gun whose tip measures .560" on the digital verniers. A short while ago, after even discovering the existence of this grease fitting, I noticed that the access hole had no cover over it. I ran a 1/2" npt pipe tap into it and plugged it with a nylon pipe plug. This undoubtedly enlarged the hole to some degree but I do not think all that much. My grease gun tip fits thru the hole with a small amount of clearance all the way around.

As an aside, I hope the fitting took the 4 pumps I gave it. I did not get a good, positive 'pop' when the gun tip hit the zerk. I even brought the gun back in the garage and anchored a zerk in the vice to witness the gun tip popping on to it. I did not get the same sensation on the swivel zerk.

 

[Nivekt]

Re: How many strokes of the....

Nivekt, I just went out to grease my swivel zerk. I have a non-labled, generic parts house grease gun whose tip measures .560" on the digital verniers. A short while ago, after even discovering the existence of this grease fitting, I noticed that the access hole had no cover over it. I ran a 1/2" npt pipe tap into it and plugged it with a nylon pipe plug. This undoubtedly enlarged the hole to some degree but I do not think all that much. My grease gun tip fits thru the hole with a small amount of clearance all the way around.

As an aside, I hope the fitting took the 4 pumps I gave it. I did not get a good, positive 'pop' when the gun tip hit the zerk. I even brought the gun back in the garage and anchored a zerk in the vice to witness the gun tip popping on to it. I did not get the same sensation on the swivel zerk.

The tip of mine measures the same as yours. The problem with mine is that the wrench head portion measures .62 and that wont make it through the hole. Ill have to do some digging around online and see if I can get a narrow coupler. I guess my only other option would be to drill out the hole larger.

Here is a picture of mine:

Could you get a bright flashlight and take a look in the hole of yours to see if the grease just shot out around the zerk fitting rather than making its way inside? With all the water that this zerk is surrounded by, it would not surprise me if the little ball got stuck with corrosion. Perhaps take a small poker or something and work the ball in and out and try to grease it again?

 

[Boomyal]

Re: How many strokes of the....

Nivek, the difference between your tip an mine is that mine is affixed to a solid, slightly crooked wand. I have several different guns that have the same setup. I also have one with a flexible wand but I never even looked at that one because I figured that it would be difficult to get that flexible hose to snap on to the zerk fitting and it does not have marine grease in it.

On my first attempt to grease that swivel fitting, I did not get any semblance of a 'pop' of the tip onto the zerk. I still gave it one pump. There was no resistance so I looked up inside, with an LED penlight and grease had splayed all around the fitting. I brought the gun inside and popped it on to a spare fitting. anchored in a vise, just to be sure that a zerk could lock into the tip. It did, with clarity.

I then went back out and tried it again. I still could not get that same 'pop' but the tip did seem to grab the zerk. That is when I gave it 4 pumps with seemingly a bit of resistance. Afterwards I looked back up the chute again and there was still a fair amount of grease around the fitting. I don't know if that grease was there from my first attempt or my subsequent 4 pump. I think I will go out a play with it again.

I would go to your local discount autoparts store and get fixed wand grease gun before I enlarged the access hole. They are very cheap. Here is an example. It pretty clearly shows a narrower tip than what you have.

Lever Action Grease Gun

Furthermore, I am not sure what the effects are of having water rammed into that cavity during operation. I just can envision that it would be good to have water forced into that swivel area. Who knows, maybe when you are underway, that hole is above the water line. I have not bothered to make a determination. However, it seems that I have seen some kind of parts breakdown, for some variation of the Stringer, that showed a plug for that hole. Mine, circa 1979, had no provisions for any kind of plug. I would have to go double check but I think I used a 1/2" npt pipe tap, that nicely threaded the rather large bearing surface of that hole. I then went to the local ACE hardware and got a nylon pipe plug that used a hex key to install.