How Often Should I Grease U-Joints in Drive?
 

Standard Bravo One drive behind 500hp. What is the recommendation to lube the u-joints? Once per year? More often? Every other year?

I didn't do it at the end of the season last year, if I need to do it again before the beginning of the season, can I just pull the drive off filled with lube, grease, and replace? Do I need any new seals/o-rings for this procedure?

I don't have a drive stand...I think this is a 2-man job right? There is a tutorial with pictures in powerboat mag for removing the drive, just wanted to double check prior to actually completing this service.

Thanks!!!

Re: How Often Should I Grease U-Joints in Drive?
 

I do mine once a year,it's a lot easier with two guys,you can pull that drive off as much as you want without worrying about gaskets and seals.I would imagine if you run in shallow water a lot with the drive trimmed up you should look the u-joints over more frequently.Just remember to be careful of the shift cable,speedo hose,and the gear lube do hickey when you are doing it.

Re: How Often Should I Grease U-Joints in Drive?
 

I can't remeber wht month ir was but Family and performance boat magazine did a great article on prefoming a proper drive service sometime last year(I know it was great cuase I was one of the techs in the article, it was shot at the shop I used to work for) Anyway if you could get your hands on a copy it would tell you everything you need to know. You should lube the joints ATLEAST once a year along with the splines. You can reuse the O-rings and there are no gaskets but more then a few times and you should replace them. When you unbolt the drive the best thing to do is pull 5 of the nuts off then put a 2x4 between the top cap and the transom plate and as soon as you pull the last nut off lift the drive to seperate about an inch, this will prevent spillage from the drive lube nipple. the stop and make sure the shift cable latch has opened you may need to use a small screwdriver to help it. All of this is of course after removing the trim clyinders. then pull the drive the rest of the way off and do wht you need to do. when reinstalling it is easiest to set the skeg on a piece of plywood or cardboard and use one hand to balance it while you alingn the shaft with the other. the boat need to be in nuetral and the drive shift link needs to be pulled out all the way wich it should do itself when you remove the drive. make sure the shift cable is linning up before you shove the drive all the way on cuase you dont want to tweek the end it will never shift the same again if you do. you will wnt to have a pair of vice grips loosley clamped on the prop shaft so you can turn it to align the slined and then shove er on and get one nut run all the way down on the starboard side as quick as you can to prevent oil spillage. then intall and tighten the reamaning 5 nuts. do not use the nuts to suck the drive on, if it won't seat on it's own something is wrong. The most common cause is poor engine alignment wich is always a good thing to check when the drive is off. the other common cuase is corrosion in the holes on the drive that the studs go through. clean em out good if there is any white krap in em.
Have fun and let us know if you need anything else.

Re: How Often Should I Grease U-Joints in Drive?
 

If it was mine I would do it once a year or every 100hrs. Since the drive is off I would also check alignment of coupler at the same time. I clean and grease the splines at the same time. I grease splines and Gimble bearing every 25 to 50 hrs just depends. A couple of shots of grease more often is better than a lot once in a while. IMHO
Oh yea check the torgue on U bolt at top also. Actually a good time to check all fastners. . :drink:

Re: How Often Should I Grease U-Joints in Drive?
 

How often do we grease the u-joints in our vehicles driven every day? The same u-joint that is exposed to rain, snow, dirt, gravel, road heat. How many cars are going 100k mikes strong on the same original u-joint that are non-servicable??

BTW, where is the 1 yr old grease going that was pumped in last yr?
I think we get carried away alot of times on some of this stuff, but if it makes you feel better, I do mine once a yr in the spring as part of my getter ready to boat procedure. ;)

Re: How Often Should I Grease U-Joints in Drive?
 

Good point US1...just so I can sleep at night I suppose I'll grease it now AND at the end of the season when it's time to change fluids again. :D

Thanks for all the replies!!!