Grease 101
 

Need some grease info, I'm not doing it correctly and need to be set straight before I really screw something up.

Need to know what all to grease and how often. Any help is appreciated...

TTT:o

What type of drive, should be a handful or more fittings on it. Do you have a fitting on your engine coupler? I over-greased mine and gunked up the u joint bellows once, no big deal.

bravo 1....i really don't know all the places to check and I'd rather find out now instead of breaking something b/c I didn't grease it. Just really need to know what grease and where to put it ;)

dang...guess I'm the only one that greases

The maintenance section of the service manual (you do have one...don't you?) should tell you all the points to grease, and what type to use. I know mine does. It should also tell you how often to grease. FYI, I have one fitting that's really hard to grease. The clearance is so tight that you can't even get one of those swiveling couplers on. I found a really cool coupler through Harbor Freight. It slides on to the fitting from the side, so it only needs about an inch to an inch and a half clearance above the fitting. It's a nice piece.

I'm assuming your boat is fairly new, so only 1 outside zerk.
This should be done at least once a yr.

1) drive must be removed to grease the 2 U-Joints. Use Merc U-Joint/Gimble Bearing grease here.

2)Grease zerk on RT side of transom assembly gets Merc U-Joint/Gimble Bearing grease. With the drive off, you can watch the gimble bearing to see when the grease starts coming out.
While drive is off, check engine alignment.

3) with drive back on, 2 zerks on the flywheel coupler. use the Merc Coupler grease here. Rotate motor until 1 Zerk is pointing up, grease that. Rotate motor 180*, grease 2nd zerk.

I use the small grease guns with the flexible hose, works fine for all.

Drain and refill the drive with Merc High Performance Drive lube, not the Merc Premium lube. Make sure the drive bottle gets changed too.
Grease prop shaft splines too!

use spline grease for the prop shaft correct?

US1...so if I pumped almost a whole tube of grease [small Merc tubes] into the gimble bearing zerk am I in trouble? I thought it was a sealed system and would push the gun off the zerk when full. Thanks

97Boss
I have always used Merc 2-4-C for the prop splines. It is more of a general purpose grease. It is always on there when I remove the prop, so I know it does not wash off. I would 'think' the Coupler grease will work there, just never tried it, so don't know how it holds up under water. The wrong grease is better than no grease. :)
The dedicated greases are for dedicated applications.

1 more area to check:
Depending on motor, if you have a fuel pump mounted on the seawater pump, the housing holds a small amount of the HP drive gear lube. It will usually get a fuel smell to it and appear diluted with fuel leaving many to believe the fuel pump diaphram has ruptured and allowed fuel to mix with the lube. That is not the case if your sight tube is dry. I liked to change that oil every year just as a precaution because of the oil seals in the pump housing. Figure the fuel odor, or what ever it is, isn't good for the seals themselves.


25 eagle,
No, you will just have alot of grease flung around inside of your bellows.