Grease Paranoia!

[nigel]

According to my service manual I -must- not use 2-4-C on the gimbal bearings as the teflon causes the bearings to slip (rather than roll) and eventually fail... OK.. Sounds reasonable.

So this morning I went round to one of the local merc dealers to get some Gimbal Bearing and U-joint Lube, as specified.. But they didn't have any and told me to put 2-4-C everywhere. The old "Thats what we've been doing for years.." story. But does everyone do this? The warning in the manual not to use grease with teflon is pretty clear!

Of course, I'm now worried that my drive may have 2-4-C where it shouldn't and as soon as I put the proper stuff in the now worn bearings will stop slipping and the whole thing will go pop... In a very expensive kind of way.

 

[Dave S]

Mercury specifies different lubricants for a reason and I certainly wouldn't use a "one grease fits all" approach. You may be able to get away with a single type of grease but I would think you are shortening the life of certain components.

 

[fwebster]

You are doing it correctly.......find out the right way and why its right. Keep doing this on your boat and you will have fewer problems and boat at a lower cost than most owners of similar boats.

You want to know the "why" on the one grease scenerio?. Try this:

After an inventory several years ago, the parts guy at your dealer got hammered becasue he had too much grease on the shelf. So, he started using it up on everything. Even the hinges on the second stall in the ladies room were greased with the last grease on the shelf, which happened to be....... you guessed it...... 2-4-C. So becasue of some bean counter getting his shorts in a wad in 1998, your dealer is using the wrong grease on lots of stuff, including the hinges in the ladies head!

 

[nigel]

Yep - Or "the green grease is £18 a tube but the 2-4-C is only a fiver" might be another reason!

Whilst I'm on - does anyone know how much grease I should put in there? I'm not intending to remove the outdrive, so won't be able to wipe away any excess that spills out of the bearing. Is this going to be a problem?

 

[Dave S]

My manual is on my boat but I believe it tells you how many pumps of the gun to use. If yours is handy, take a look at it.

 

[fwebster]

If I may ask, how do you plan to lubricate the universal joints if you don't remove the outdrive?

 

[nigel]

I've got Alpha 1s so the u-joints are sealed and so don't need lubricating... apparently.

 

[midway]

My 04 Alpha states that the ujoints are sealed and do not need grease, the joints have no grease fittings or a place to put them. I don't necessarily agree with that thought, growed up on a farm and you greased it regular, my old boat got greased regular and was running the original ujoints after 17 years of use in salt water with no problems. You still should pull the drive and lube the splines on the shaft.

 

[280 SeaRay]

I don't like that the alpha joints are not lube-able.... but I will surely press in a set with zerks when the stock start making noise. You should still pull the drive and inspect... and check engine alignment.

Here is a handy dandy Merc grease by color thingy that I did a while back.

Top Left - Merc Special 101
Top Right - Merc 2-4-C
Middle Left - Merc Gimbal and u-joint grease
Middle Right - Plews Marine Trailer bearing grease
Bottom - Merc engine spline grease

The earlier comments are right on the money... us the appropriate grease the service manual calls for.

 

[fwebster]

On not removing the outdrives, sealed bearings only postpone the need for servicing the drive shaft. If I had an alpha, I'd probably remove the shaft and u-joint bearing capos and inject grease in them and put them back together.

And here's another question: I don't have outdrives and I haven't read the service manual for them, but how do you lubricate the coupler splines without removing the outdrive. Replacing a coupler runs in to some decent money because you just about have to take the boat apart to get to them. I can see a day+ to remove an engine, replace the coupler, reinstall and check everything and at nearly $100/hour in most places, I'm thinking I'd rather buy an houy every year or so to pull the drive off and lubricate everything I could find.

 

[Dave S]

And here's another question: I don't have outdrives and I haven't read the service manual for them, but how do you lubricate the coupler splines without removing the outdrive.

There are grease fittings on the coupler shaft inside the boat. The problem is they are almost impossible to get to in some boats. My 240SD was a good example......there was no way I could reach them. But on my 260DA they are pretty easy to reach. On the other hand I question how well these grease fittings distribute the grease over the splines so I personally will only use the zerk fittings inside the boat as an interim measure to the annual pulling of the outdrive. I am a big believer in pulling the outdrive once a year to make sure everthing is nice and dry and to inspect the gimball bearing and the splines on the coupler and to check the engine alignment too. Then you can do a "proper" job of putting grease on the splines too while you are at it. My 260DA also has the sealed u-joint so pulling the drive shaft to check the condition of the u-joint is just one more reason for the annual pull. When mine starts to wear or develop slop it will then get repalced with one that can be lubed.

 

[280 SeaRay]

yep there are zerks on the coupler itself.... 3 on the aluminum 1 on the steel version.... always fun bumping the starter to get the zerk to where you can reach it..... :smt001 The zerks do a decent job of getting grease on that guy (I did several pumps of grease before pulling the drive on my 5.0/BIII) but if you get too much it will fling in the engine compartment (not fun at all).

Dave... my BIII serial number was also listed as a sealed u-joint model but still had zerks on it... so you may want to check the next time you yank that puppy off (if you have not already)

 

[cskeller07]

So i'm going to revive this old thread as i'm looking for answers, and everything i'm finding says that the 101 has been replaced by 2-4-C grease now

 

[cskeller07]

So i'm going to revive this old thread as i'm looking for answers, and everything i'm finding says that the 101 has been replaced by 2-4-C grease now

I just spoke with mercury tech support and special lubricant 101 has indeed been replaced by 2-4-c

 

[Scott06]

Ive used lucas red n tacky an everything on the boat, outdrive ujoints coupler gimbal bearing, trailer etc for 20 years no issue dont over think it

 

[Strecker25]

old thread but I went through this with our old boat so I'll share. They replaced the Coupler Grease, U-Joint Grease, and anti-corrosion grease with Extreme Grease. As stated the lubcricant 101 was replaced by 2-4-c