pugwash
Well-Known Member
How often should you give the stern gland greaser handle a twist? I have talked with engineers whose advice varies from once an hour to once when you start up. What's ideal?
TLC of stern gland
- Thread starter pugwash
- Start date
G
Guest
Guest
Depends what the grease is doing. Just used in the packing and the bearing is water cooled (cutlass). Or is the bearing actually a metal on metal with external oil seal?
Another option is just once when you tie up for the night?
Another option is just once when you tie up for the night?
pugwash
Well-Known Member
Cripes, I haven't a clue. Not cooled. Very simple. And of course slow revs. Just a shaft going out through a metal tube with a propellor on the outside. It works fine and I haven't had any problems, just greasing the gland whenever I think of it. But I'm wondering if I ought to be more rigorous about it.
VicS
Well-Known Member
Based on that just once when you have finished for the day. Just turn the greaser until you feel a bit of resistance probably.
Superflid
Well-Known Member
I usually remember when the drips turn into a trickle.
Pye_End
Well-Known Member
Every hour sounds good if it is accessible. Check the drip rate and decide.
Mine wasn't so did it start of passage or end of day or something, and then got rid of it and put in an oil bath seal. Don't miss the greaser at all!
Mine wasn't so did it start of passage or end of day or something, and then got rid of it and put in an oil bath seal. Don't miss the greaser at all!
ColinHuggins
N/A
If having to motor say, cross-Channel, I'd give it a turn every 3 hours or so.
If I may suggest ways to spend your money, that old-fashioned design has been replaced by water-lubricated types. I had a Deep Sea Seal on my last and never touched it except after drying out (it's 'im again!) when air needed bleeding off by squeezing the gaiter.
A refinement is to have a water feed off the exhaust into the seal; that's what I have now, on a drying berth.
Neither installation leaked a single drop all season nor required any maintenance. You can't believe how strange that felt at first!
If I may suggest ways to spend your money, that old-fashioned design has been replaced by water-lubricated types. I had a Deep Sea Seal on my last and never touched it except after drying out (it's 'im again!) when air needed bleeding off by squeezing the gaiter.
A refinement is to have a water feed off the exhaust into the seal; that's what I have now, on a drying berth.
Neither installation leaked a single drop all season nor required any maintenance. You can't believe how strange that felt at first!
Bilgediver
Well-Known Member
On some yachts built in the 70s like Westerly Centaurs the bearing in the brass tube at the back was white metel..If you have one of these then a wee turn every now and then when the engine is running makes sure both the packing in the gland AND the bearing are greased....Other boats have a
rubber cutlass bearing which is water lubricated so the grease is only for the gland and not so much required as you don t want too much at the cutlass....just once a day should be fine.
John
rubber cutlass bearing which is water lubricated so the grease is only for the gland and not so much required as you don t want too much at the cutlass....just once a day should be fine.
John
Superflid
Well-Known Member
It's an idea worth looking at after I've got the rest of the boat sorted out. Like you I'm on a drying mooring, so the water feed from the exhaust looks best.
It's on the list. The ever-lengthening one! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
It's on the list. The ever-lengthening one! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
G
Guest
Guest
Take care, of water feeds to seals. One of the early seals had a manual that was a bit odd. I have fixed 2 boats so far that connected the feed to the exhaust injector side of the anti-siphon. These were items professionally fitted at UK and US boat yards. Due to the positioning of the feed below the anti-siphon it was under the water line. The engine then filled with water from the stern tube filling the exhaust.
The alternate way is to put it on the engine pump side of the anti-siphon. This now means that there is no way to stop water getting to the sea water pump when you change the impellor. Any pipe failure on the engine also sinks the boat. Why have a sea cock to the engine if water is allowed in through another pipe.
The only solution is to have siphon break and feed that is ALL above the water line.
Keep it simple and just take a pipe up above the water line and leave it open. High up in cockpit. Least things to go wrong and if it does get hot you have the added advantage of seeing steam coming out of the pipe. But that's another story.
The alternate way is to put it on the engine pump side of the anti-siphon. This now means that there is no way to stop water getting to the sea water pump when you change the impellor. Any pipe failure on the engine also sinks the boat. Why have a sea cock to the engine if water is allowed in through another pipe.
The only solution is to have siphon break and feed that is ALL above the water line.
Keep it simple and just take a pipe up above the water line and leave it open. High up in cockpit. Least things to go wrong and if it does get hot you have the added advantage of seeing steam coming out of the pipe. But that's another story.
tillergirl
Well-Known Member
The 1962 book on motor boat engines by Alan Wilson says that grease packed stern tubes (and ergo the gland) should be kept full of grease by giving "the grease cup a few turns daily"
ColinHuggins
N/A
Ooh, that don't arf sound complicated. And completely unnecessary in my experience. But I just use boats, not repair them.
Not that owner mods aren't improvements from hell - I've just discovered that the new cockpit floor and seats which the vendor prized so highly he refused to drop his price when negotiating the sale) included completely glassing over the trim tab mountings AND adding a bearer over the prop inspection hatch.
Sans paroles.
Not that owner mods aren't improvements from hell - I've just discovered that the new cockpit floor and seats which the vendor prized so highly he refused to drop his price when negotiating the sale) included completely glassing over the trim tab mountings AND adding a bearer over the prop inspection hatch.
Sans paroles.