Tailstock bearing lubrication?
 

It appears that the bearings are sealed, but there is a lot of (what appears to be Merc spline grease) laying inside the tailstock housing.

Should I repack the housing with fresh spline grease? or was I just seeing grease that had been "wiped" off of the drive spline during the previous instalation?

ANYBODY????

Thrillseeker,

There will be a minimal amount of spline grease thrown by the rotation of the dirve shaft. The amount depends on the frequency of lubrication. Generally, if you grease the tail stock/u joint driveline before each reinstallation, and then at 100 hours or 1 X per year, that's sufficient, and will keep that "thrown" residue to a minimum.

I've got my drives off as we speak, going back on tomorrow morning. The last time they were off was one year ago. At that time when we reinstalled them, we put the U/joint drive shaft into a grease cartridge, remove the assembly from the cartridge, fully covered in grease, and then insert thru the transom shield into the coupler. During the year the gimbal bearing was greased at about 50 hours. We use Merc spline grease.

The residue was thrown in the first hour after reassembly and stayed clean after that.

Hope that helps with the answer you're seeking.

Steve