remote greaser - how many turns how often?

[Burnham_Bob]

I have a beta 14 and a bog standard stuffing box with a remote greaser that has a fairly hefty handle like an old fashioned tap. Not much water comes into the bilges and when I pump out there is a very very faint sheen that could be old grease - it's certainly not diesel.

No one has ever explained to me how often to turn the tap on the greaser and how much - not even on the old boat which also had a greaser but a much more modest screw cap on the stuffing box itself.

Currently it gets one turn every day the engine is run for a considerable time as opposed to just getting on and off the mooring. Any advice? After eight years its time i started doing it properly!

 

[VicS]

You are probably over doing it a little. Turn until you feel a bit of resistance then just a touch more, or stay as you are.

Similarly when leaving the boat.

 

[Caer Urfa]

Couple of turns after a good days engine running should be fine.

 

[moody1]

The best way IOHO is what hubby and I did when we got the boat and also after he repacks the shaft seal.
Run engine for good run and when stopped, lift boards to see the seal. Observe if water is dripping through. In our case it drips slow when shaft is turning, drips fast when shaft is stopped. This is before turning greaser handle.
We observed the drips and then turned greaser handle till drips stopped. (When leaving boat on mooring you don't want water coming in at all). We made note of number of turns to achieve this. That is now number of turns we make after any engine use, short or at least each day.
We also before engine use give 1 turn on handle to make sure good amount of grease is on shaft.
We realise that others may say we overdo it, but it's survived years and worked. Overall we estimate one medium size pot of grease, (trailer bearing waterproof grease) ~18 months at that rate.
At least we know how many turns to stop water getting in !

 

[reeac]

My principle when I had a similar setup was to turn to take up any slack, just using two fingers to turn the handle.

 

[samwestwood]

You shouldnt have to put a load of turns on to stop water this means you are either using it wrong or have a problem.

The correct way to use the greaser is Half turn when you start the engin and then a max of half a turn every continuas working engin hour.

 

[moody1]

[ QUOTE ]
You shouldnt have to put a load of turns on to stop water this means you are either using it wrong or have a problem.

The correct way to use the greaser is Half turn when you start the engin and then a max of half a turn every continuas working engin hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry but disagree, traditional grease / packed stern glands require a small amount of water to drip from the inboard end of the seal. This provides 2 purposes, a) to show that packing is not too tight on shaft and b)to lubricate.
We have this older traditional style and regardless of whther you use dripless packing or not still required this drip.
Our turns to stop water is when engine is stopped and vessel moored. Once packing has settled and gland taken up, we usually find that 1 turn is sufficient to stop water drip. This amount also means that within short time of shaft turning the required slow drip restarts.
As we've found each boat we've had / been on has had it's different regime or requirement.
The main point of our original reply and this is that unless stern gland is designed for dripless setting, you should only set it to be dripless when boat is not in use. Our method of determining number of turns is with that point in mind.

We take your point and it's probably what suits your boat, ours not. We did adjust the gland one time to reduce drip and use dripless packing. That was a mistake as our shaft then ran hot and the packing when removed was visibly scarred where excessive heat had occurred. We then repacked and went back to our tried and tested method, shaft then running cool again.
We fully accept that we have possibly a slack packing, but it's better than too tight and overheating. We know other boats that set their packing up as per "book" and use more grease than we do. As said earlier - each boat differs slightly.

So question to Magknight - Do you say that water should not drip ? How much grease per year would you use ? Interested to know your answers to compare.

 

[samwestwood]

Sorry i dont think i was very clear you are right you should always (when running) have a small amout of water ingress and i can see the advantage of useing the extra turns when leaveing the boat to pack it tight. my point was that using too much grease when using the engine could put extra pressure on the gland and waste greese.


I have found for all the boats i have used with this type of seal a half turn of the greeser is plenty every full hour on the engine.


Also if you dont buy the greese with the plastic filler thing in it, the tube itself can be a real bugger to fill.

 

[moody1]

No problem - we know that we can probably give it another 1/2 turn on the gland nut, but prefer to know it's sealing but not tight.
The tins of trailer bearing grease which is also suited to stern seals of course are missing that essential plate with hole in centre. Hubby did manage to transfer a plate from the normal castrol rubbish tin previous owner left to a proper marine grease tin. Of course when empty, guess who forgot to take it out for next tin. So we are back to lolly-pop stick to fill the barrel. We tried sucking in without the plate and it worked, but the amount of cleaning of outside of barrel was a mess.

 

[samwestwood]

Two big spoons work well i found just dont tell anyne at breakfast.

LOL