Outdrive grease/oil?

Smeghead

Smeghead

Active Member
Joined
9 Apr 2010
Messages
47
Visit site
Hello everyone, new to the forum and very very new to boating in general.
Im in Little Rock Arkansas USA - is this a UK boating forum? I saw Brighton when searching for my answer :)

Heres my first ever and current boat:
boat1.jpg



Its all ready to go for the spring, engine is running great but im concerned whether I should be oiling or greasing the outdrive?
There seem to be 'nipples' that look like a standard grease gun fitting.
Nothing that looks like an oil fil.
What should I be doing? Greasing? Oiling? nothing?
Pics :
boat2.jpg

boat3.jpg

boat4.jpg
 
Last edited:
Welcome, This is an international forum based in the UK. Everyone's welcome and I'm sure you'll be swamped with correct answers to your enquiry very soon.

To be going on with here's my input:- The grease nipples are for greasing the tilt and steering mechanisms but you will need oil in the outdrive gearbox. I don't know what type as I am not familiar with Mercruiser legs being a shaft drive type of guy!
 
Last edited:
Thanks I actually figured it out, got the outdrive filled with marine gear oil.
I'll "give my nipples a squirt" of grease too

FYI im from the UK, Sutton in Surrey but live in the US now, finally live close to water so got a cheap boat to have fun in :D

My other question is about my trim gauge.
The boat had a trim gauge in it already when I bought it but it was broken so I replaced it with a new one.
BUt when installing it I found that there were only 2 wires ran to the back of the gauge, I guess for the illumination.
So I spose I need to find where on the outdrive to run a wire from to get the trim gauge working properly.
Anyone got any ideas where the sender might be and what it might look like?
 
Smeghead said:
Anyone got any ideas where the sender might be and what it might look like?
Click to expand...

It's the big round thing beside the grease nipple in your last photo. IIRC the one on the starboard side is the trim sender and the one on the port side that looks the same (but isn't) is the limit switch that stops the drive being trimmed too far out when you're under way. The wires all come though into the boat together, somewhere near the steering arm, and will probably vanish into the wiring loom there. I think the trim sender connection is built into the mercruiser loom right up to the dash as standard, even if a trim gauge is not fitted. Mine was, anyway.

BTW, there's another grease nipple you may have missed. It's tucked right in close against the transom on the starboard side of the drive unit mounting plate, about half way down. This one feeds grease through a long gallery to the main bearing that supports the drive shaft in front of the universal joint. It's easy to miss if you don't know it's there, so if you hadn't found it already, don't forget to give that one a squirt of grease as well.

Good luck, and happy boating! :)
 
Thanks for the help guys!
I cant find that final grease point you talked about, shame because it sounds the most important. :confused:

I can see a wire going from the round trim sender inside the boat but cant find where it goes after that.
Oh well, its a small boat I can just look over the back lol
 
That grease point is about here on my outdrive (not sure if this will work, I've not posted a photo before)

boat2.jpg


According to my manual, the trim sender wire at the instrument panel should be brown/white.
 
Last edited:
I cant tell you how long ive been looking for that hahaha thanks so much
Got one for the 3.0 engine? :)


and Excalibur - dead right about that last nipp....er...Zirk thanks!
 
Last edited:
:) Thanks thats perfect
What a great forum! Thanks to all
As I said im a total noob to all this stuff so I have a million questions. So far so good!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top