Soak Bearings in Rust Remover?

[Tsteiny]

Replaced the oils seals in my alpha one gen 2 upper drive shaft. Everything looks good. However, my upper driven gear assembly looks like it has some light rust on it. Nothing that worries me. But I was thinking about submerging it in some WD40 rust remover, clean it off really well and re lube it with gear oil. Don’t have the time for a good week to actually clean the rust with a magic easier. Will this method work? Or stay away from it and wait till I have some more time?

 

[jimmbo]

Welcome to iboats

WD 40 is a Water Dispersant, not a Rust Remover, nor can you buff Rust out. If the Gear's Surfaces have rusted then they should be replaced, as they will certainly continue to worsen, and the resulting loss of Material, will certainly chew up other Components inside the Drive Unit. Same goes for Bearings

 

[tpenfield]

Welcome to iBoats . . .

This stuff you mean?
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It is hard to say if it will be good or bad. I'm assuming the outdrive got low on oil and developed the rust? I'd be more concerned about the bearings in the upper gear case. Got any pictures to share?

 

[dingbat]

Surface rust comes right off with any type of lubricate, I use diesel fuel, and steel wool.

As noted above, I’d be inspecting the bearing surfaces

 

[tank1949]

as others have said or implied.... replace bearing. You will sleep better.

 

[stresspoint]

soak everything in penetrant dry them bearings out, spin them by hand , if they feel notchy at all chuck them and get new ones.

all the gear mating surfaces should be free of pitting , the smallest amount of pitting , chuck them and get new ones.

pitted gears or notchy bearings are not worth reusing , use common sence as to what paarts you reuse after cleaning what you have there up.

 

[racerone]

Rusty bearings is not a good thing.------No potions will fix that.

 

[Tsteiny]

Welcome to iBoats . . .

This stuff you mean?
.
View attachment 378855
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It is hard to say if it will be good or bad. I'm assuming the outdrive got low on oil and developed the rust? I'd be more concerned about the bearings in the upper gear case. Got any pictures to share?

Yes that’s it. Here are some pics.

 

[racerone]

Those bearings are ----SCRAP-----Just some proof that some folks know very little about fine machinery and how oil " works " in bearings.

 

[Tsteiny]

Well glad I reached out to you guys. The spin freely and looking closer now, not sure if it’s rust or what. Tried using 600 grit sandpiper and it does remove some of it, but not all. Does those pics look like rust? Kinda leaning towards replacing it. It was just that upper bearing and race. I replaced the oil seals because I found gear oil in the bilge and in the exhaust bellows. No other bearings show anything on the whole upper drive shaft, just that one.

 

[racerone]

Believe it or not steel is porous.-----Water has a way of getting in there.----Corrosion is under the surface and you can not see it.----I say those bearing will lead to a ---" dynamic halt " ---at some time.----Maybe not in 1 hr but you risk it.

 

[flashback]

Your pics are good quality, I see pitting in both rollers and races..You should replace them...

 

[Scott Danforth]

those bearings have pitting and spalling. you need new bearings.

the teeth on the gears do not look that great either.

 

[dingbat]

Believe it or not steel is porous.-----

Steel is not porous. Your confusing porosity with surface roughness.

Porosity would impart significant problems on the use of mass adsorption and X-ray fluorescence to measure thickness of, or coatings on, metallic substrates.

 

[tpenfield]

This looks worse than what you described . . . I agree with the others. The areas of pitting are where the rust came from. Rust is evidence of removed metal.

 

[Tsteiny]

I’ve ordered a new upper bearing and cup and will replace

 

[Scott06]

You may want to look at the lower too as moisture got in there some how.

If the gears need replacing too may be more cost effective to get a SEI upper

 

[racerone]

Steel is porous !!-----It does not look like it to the naked eye but water finds it's way in there !-----Something called -----intergranular corrosion.----Look it up using --google.-----Chance to learn the finer points on material behavior.

 

[dingbat]

Steel is porous !!-----It does not look like it to the naked eye but water finds it's way in there !-----Something called -----intergranular corrosion.----Look it up using --google.-----Chance to learn the finer points on material behavior.

You've sure picked the wrong person to argue this subject with......lol

Certified nuclear welder and Mechanical Engineer by education, somehow ended up designing and building Controls and QC instrumentation for the metals industry for a living.

Over 45 years of experience at the producer level (steel mill) specializing in chemistry and grain structure of steel, copper and aluminum alloys. Have worked with or consulted with every major metal producer in the world.

As for your intergranular corrosion, while you can get corrosion in the boundary layers, steel is a crystalline solid with a BCC lattice.

If the materiel is truly porous as you suggest, it would be physically impossible to measure material to the accuracy (± 0.1% of measured thickness) we get using mass absorption and radiation (x-ray).

 

[jimmbo]

I have seen many Engineers proven wrong, sometimes by Physics, other times by those tasked building their Flawed Projects. I was fun to listen to them wail, "But the Book says It should work", as It didn't