greasing rudder shaft

[grafozz]

I want to grease the rudder shaft whilst the rudder is still in position , is there a grease nipple available
that could be screwed into the grp rudder tube ?
so grease can be pressured in without lifting out and dropping the rudder ?
There has to be a way to do this ?

 

[Tranona]

I want to grease the rudder shaft whilst the rudder is still in position , is there a grease nipple available
that could be screwed into the grp rudder tube ?
so grease can be pressured in without lifting out and dropping the rudder ?
There has to be a way to do this ?

Why do you want to grease it? If it has bearings in there that need grease the builder would have fitted a grease nipple. The bearings will almost certainly be water lubricated at the bottom. The top bearing, if it is above the waterline may be greased but will probably be sealed.

 

[cmedsailor]

I want to grease the rudder shaft whilst the rudder is still in position , is there a grease nipple available
that could be screwed into the grp rudder tube ?
so grease can be pressured in without lifting out and dropping the rudder ?
There has to be a way to do this ?

Do you want to grease the top bearing because the rudder gets stuck?
Don't make a hole to the rudder tube. The top bearing has a "hat" so the bearing sits on top of the rudder tube. That hat is probably 1cm. You should be able to see it below the quadrant. Drill a small whole (2-3mm) on that hat, carefully, until you reach the rudder shaft. You will know when to stop drilling because the hat is quite soft (nylon, teflon, etc) whereas the shaft is much harder. Then spray grease (using these bottles with the straw). Kali tyxi!

 

[Neil_Y]

As a bearing supplier, first you need to know what type of bearings you have, water lubrication or dry is quite common for rudder bearings, the material you have could be self lubricating. Grease could cause problems for the bearings lower down as it is a poor conductor of heat, they may need the cooling effect of water, grease will work it's way down and could block the supply of water to the bottom bearing.

If they are bronze then fine grease could be an option but I'd be trying to find out why the rudder is stiff (assuming that is why you want to insert grease)

 

[Chalker]

Grease on an upper bearing is likely to get wet with salt water and dry out when stationary, leaving grease loaded with salt, not good.
Are you sure that it should be greased? As earlier, unless it is designed to be greased - don't. Find out where it is stiff and fix it.

 

[bert49uk]

and dont make the mistake of using WD40 which has a habit of swelling up some bearing materials making the situation worse

 

[Davegriff]

If you must use grease, be sure it's saltwater resistant.

 

[grafozz]

Thanks for the input , I want to fit a grease nipple so that the rudder shaft can be greased without lifting the boat and dropping the rudder .
there are no bearings in the tube , as far as I can see it is just solid grp throughout the full length .
every year I drop the shaft and grease it by hand and push it back in , but as the boat sits I cant get the rudder shaft right out due to its length , 1200mm
so fitting a grease nipple at the top of the tube should get grease in at the top .
The ruder is quite free in rotation , no problem there , in fact when it needs greasing ,ie. when its dry , it will clonk a little within the tube , after greasing its fine .
The shaft is solid 42mm stainless bar and the rudder has the quadrant on top flush with the top of the rudder tube with a big close fitting s/s washer bearing on the tube
so my thought is the grease will be encouraged to go down the tube .