Stern Gland Lubrication

[sixpack]

And no one suggest Vaseline please.

My little boat is fitted with a oil filled stern gland which is gravity fed from a small reservoir mounted about 12" above the gland. My question is what oil should I fill the reservoir with? gear oil?, engine oil, 3-in-1? or what?

Pardon my ignorance in regards to this matter but I have always had grease filled stern glands with greasers in the past.

 

[steve28]

I have one of these on my stern tube, its worked really well since i installed it. I found that if the oil in the resevoir was to thick then it took ages for the small air bubles to travel up the tube.
In the end i used the thinnest oil i could get which was sewing machine oil, bear in mind the reservoir bottle does not have to be anywhere near full and even 1 inch is enough.


steve

 

[dansar]

I used a similar system on a fleet of passenger vessels. There is a specific stern tube lub oil on the market which is very thick and difficult to pour into holding tanks. (keeping the oil in a warm enviroment for a few days before required helps). Using a thin oil can lead to more usage and unfortunately leave a trace of oil on the surface around your boat.
Also there should be a gate valve on the pipe from the holding tank to the stern tube. This can regulate the flow of oil but remember that in the summer months the oil will be warmer compared to the colder winters.

Hope this helps

David

 

[steve28]

Either you are confused or i am,
I thought we were talking about a stern gland that has shaft seals on both the water and air side which is completely filled with oil which is not "used " unless one of the seals fails.

steve

 

[dansar]

Hi
Following on from Steve's reply and sorry for any confusion caused.

I was refering to a commercial installation which was about 15/20 years old. This system relied on stern tube oil being gravity fed to the inboard gland. Yes the oil (this oil could be better described as grease it was that thick!) did fill up the stern tube and both seals did keep the oil in. However, from personel experience, due to the high hours of running, we found that small amounts of oil did escape through the lower gland more so when the weather was warmer. The only experience on small boat gland lubrication that I have had is with the hand turn grease units.

Again apologies for any confusion.

David

 

[pete]

Hi
I use (red) transmision oil in my Halyard marine stern gland (that was fitted before I bought the boat ) It uses none, but every year I vent the screw on top of the gland until clean oil comes out before re sealing and topping up. I dont know what rubber ? seals may be inside but some types of rubber dont fare well with oil.

Pete

 

[towzer240]

the thick oil was proberly neox, inthe winter its like cold tar ie verythick & sticky, duruing the summer its a bit thinner, but any leaks are a nightmare to clean up.in the navy they use main engine oil for sealing.

 

[dulcibella]

My Halyard system recommends using a good quality engine oil.