two greasers....

[scozzy]

Hi All

So my Halcyon 23 has two greasers...A smallish one right behind the stuffing box which is a right pain to access through the floor and ..
a second,much larger (cup/ reservoir?) accessed thru rear cockpit locker next to fuel tank,much easier to access.

Obviously old school tech and i'm not bothered with going for a PSS ,just wondering about how useful rear one is? if gland already being greased by 1st one and assuming cutlass is using water as lubricant then.....is rear one actually necessary or just an old school belt and braces approach?

also thinking ill just take a hacksaw to the smaller one a couple of inches up and run a tube to a more easy to access place next to the other, no/any issues with a potentially long rubber tube able to deliver grease?

Cheers in advance for any advice tips etc

L

 

[Pye_End]

What sort of cutless bearing do you have? Ie is it a fluted rubber bearing, or a solid metal one?

 

[LittleSister]

Hi All

So my Halcyon 23 has two greasers...A smallish one right behind the stuffing box which is a right pain to access through the floor and ..
a second,much larger (cup/ reservoir?) accessed thru rear cockpit locker next to fuel tank,much easier to access.
. . .

I had similar small, very inaccessible greaser on the stuffing box (with a knurled circular cap IIRC) on a previous boat, and bought a standard sized one which I mounted horizontally up in the top corner forward corner of a cockpit locker, out of sight and out of the way, but very easily and conveniently reachable, and connected it to the stuffing box with plastic tubing. The replacement greaser seemed outrageously pricey at the time (c2007, do I recall £78?), but it was one of the best mods I made to the boat. I appreciated it after every trip.

I'd learnt from the insistent skipper I first sailed with to give a quarter or half turn twist to the greaser after each trip (even so I dont think I ever needed to refill the new greaser more than once, in over a decade's ownership). I much later read that was too frequent greasing, and risked filling the cutless bearing reducing/preventing its water cooling, though I never encountered any noticeable problems. Recently I came across someone seeming to say the stuffing box never needs grease adding if it's done when new packing is installed. So now I don't know what's true! (But current boat has a Volvo type shaft seal, so it's not something I need to worry about soon, if ever.)

 

[Tranona]

The grease is not there for lubrication - the packing and cutless (or rubber if it is the old Stuart Turner type) are water lubricated. The grease is used to fill the stern tube behind the packing to reduce the amount of water going through the packing when the shaft is not turning. So it does not matter where the source is located. The little pot on the stuffing box is usually enough if the packing is well adjusted but obviously difficult to squirt that little bit in that you need every time you leave boat so a remote greaser is better. If it is a Stuart Turner stern tube then there will be a white metal bearing as well which does need grease but it gets it from the same source.

 

[scozzy]

Thanks all, will re home the smaller one to a user friendly spot to avoid crawling round cockpit reaching through the inspection hatch! @Pye eye it's the solid old school version not rubber fluted, mechanic says cutlass fine, just need to sort my greaser game, cheers everyone

 

[Pye_End]

@Pye eye it's the solid old school version not rubber fluted, mechanic says cutlass fine, just need to sort my greaser game, cheers everyone

OK. I wondered if one was to fill the stern tube and the other to manage the stern gland. I have no direct experience of this type of system so Tranona's post will no doubt be the one to take note of.