Stern gland greaser

[tonyreptiles]

Hia ll,

 

I'v been dealing with my stern glsnd.

Changd the grase for that browny colour stuff, cleaned the pipe, tightened the nuts etc.

 

I haven't been anywhere in the boat yet, going tomorrow. However, although I tightened the greast gun plunger thing, when I tried it today it was slack again. Another turn tightened it agin but I wonder if it will keep needing tightening.

 

Is it suposed to be tight all the time, do I have a problem

 

Is it OK to go slack while you are moored? Is this normal? Do you only need to tighten it after a cruise?

 

TIA

 

TR

[Ricardo]

I'd assume that the grease would work it's way into the packing if you put enough pressure on it, until there's no pressure left, at which point you'd find the plunger thing slack again.

 

Ric.

[bottle]

When the greaser was filled, did you ensure that most if not all of the air was removed from within the grease.

 

When filling, air can become trapped in the grease, after applying pressure (turning the screw) this air can be released and as the greaser is not air tight, be released to the atmosphere so losing the pressure within, hence it being 'loose' on next inspection.

 

Aim to fill the greaser with as little air as possible trapped within the grease.

 

Before your time I expect but when cars needed their suspension greased a grease gun was used (same principal) these had a vent that was used to let the air escape and so have 'solid' grease within the gun.

 

Grease lubricates, air does not so the removal of the air is essential.

[John Orentas]

As Bottle says you have probably just got air in the greaser tube. There is a knack in filling the greaser, I prefer to unscrew the tube from the base and unscrew the cap with the 'T' bar in it from the tube. You then have the easy task of filling an empty tube with the grease, this is especially easy it you have bought a tin of grease with that sort of piston plate on top.

 

When it is all put back together and you have got all the surplus grease off your hands and out of your hair, you should get a virtual hydraulic lock with the grease, when cruising I like to give it three turns a day, start middle and end. If the stern tube is in good condition it will not allow you more than a quarter turn or so.

Edited May 2, 2006 by John Orentas

[DHutch]

Our grease unscrews between the base and the main body/tube. You can then take it out of whatever god-forsaken place its installed and do the job on the kitchen table. (which if you boat is anything like ours has seen much worse jobs done on it)

 

But in reference to the OP, i think thats fairly A-typical. I/we experence a simualar phenomenm on our boat.

 

We aim to turn the greaser about a 1/4 turn at the end of each day, which is less than the half turn most people preach, but this is mainly due the slow shaft speed of out pertiular boat.

- Then if where leaving the boat for a long peroid (over a 1/2 weeks) we endevor to give it extra full turn before leaving.

- With this we very rairly get any water thought, certainly not with the prop stationary.

 

If your finding that your having to put a turn-a-day in to stop it leaking even when your not goin anywhere you need to tighten the gland up a bit! Or possable even repack it.

 

 

Daniel

Edited April 29, 2006 by dhutch

[Amicus]

Hia ll,

 

I'v been dealing with my stern glsnd.

snip

Is it suposed to be tight all the time, do I have a problem

 

Is it OK to go slack while you are moored? Is this normal? Do you only need to tighten it after a cruise?

 

TIA

 

TR

What your finding is correct, you don’t have a problem.

When you wind the greaser down the pressure builds and then, over a short period of time the pressure will bleed away as the grease squeezes away through the shaft bearing, which is where you want it. If you over do it and keep winding whilst on the mooring you just fill the canal with grease.

The greaser should be treated differently on the mooring as from cruising, if the shaft is not turning the greaser can be left alone, when cruising, little and often is the way to do it.

[Guest]

What your finding is correct, you don’t have a problem.

When you wind the greaser down the pressure builds and then, over a short period of time the pressure will bleed away as the grease squeezes away through the shaft bearing, which is where you want it. If you over do it and keep winding whilst on the mooring you just fill the canal with grease.

The greaser should be treated differently on the mooring as from cruising, if the shaft is not turning the greaser can be left alone, when cruising, little and often is the way to do it.

My findings with previous boat were much the same (this one has no greaser).

[musicman]

I agree that filling the grease barrel is the key - mine unscrews at the bottom of the barrel and I can fill it with fresh grease and slowly retract the plunger back up the barrel as I go.

 

One easy test of whether grease is getting down to the stern tube - surplus grease has to go somewhere and usually, most of it oozes out around the gland itself and (when the prop is rotating) splatters itself liberally around the bilge area!!

 

Lovely

[nipper]

Hiya All!

 

I thought thats it was about time i put my penny worth in to this topic seeing that i do know a bit about it.

 

Shoot me down in flames, but, I can't understand why, in this day and age, why the inland waterway boats, don't have the sort of shaft seal that has been used for years on small sea going craft!

 

My small yacht has a seal made of ceramic disks between the shaft and stern tube that don't need great dollops of grease to make the joint watertight.

 

Far better for the environment and does away with that greasy old gun, leaking it's contents about the tool box!

 

I can understand having the grease glands on the older boats, but, but why don'tthe builders use the modern seals on all the new boats?

 

nipper

[DHutch]

Shoot me down in flames, but, I can't understand why, in this day and age, why the inland waterway boats, don't have the sort of shaft seal that has been used for years on small sea going craft!

Some do...

 

The main problem is that due to the bottom being about 3inchs way from the prop, and the whole canal being generally muddy/gritty these sorts off bearing can fail really rather quickly.

- And also the fact that if unmaintained (which they often are) certain types can fail catastiofical, which unplesant results.

 

 

Daniel

[John Orentas]

Hi Nipper.

 

People continue to fit 'old fashioned' stern tubes because they are considered to be better for narrowboats, as Daniel says all the various types you see on sea boats have all been tried out on the canals, certainly the water lubricated types do not work well in gritty canal water, some of the newer sealed ones such as the Volvo design are better but I think the jury is still out.

 

People don't use messy grease guns by the way, most boats are fitted with slightly less messy greasers which only require refilling every couple of years and the amount of grease that goes into the canal is fairly insignificant, canal boat people have got used to tweaking the greaser once or twice a day, it is a good discipline makes them at least take a look round at things on a daily basis.

[nipper]

Hi Nipper.

 

People continue to fit 'old fashioned' stern tubes because they are considered to be better for narrowboats, as Daniel says all the various types you see on sea boats have all been tried out on the canals, certainly the water lubricated types do not work well in gritty canal water, some of the newer sealed ones such as the Volvo design are better but I think the jury is still out.

 

People don't use messy grease guns by the way, most boats are fitted with slightly less messy greasers which only require refilling every couple of years and the amount of grease that goes into the canal is fairly insignificant, canal boat people have got used to tweaking the greaser once or twice a day, it is a good discipline makes them at least take a look round at things on a daily basis.

 

 

 

 

Hi Nipper.

 

People continue to fit 'old fashioned' stern tubes because they are considered to be better for narrowboats, as Daniel says all the various types you see on sea boats have all been tried out on the canals, certainly the water lubricated types do not work well in gritty canal water, some of the newer sealed ones such as the Volvo design are better but I think the jury is still out.

 

People don't use messy grease guns by the way, most boats are fitted with slightly less messy greasers which only require refilling every couple of years and the amount of grease that goes into the canal is fairly insignificant, canal boat people have got used to tweaking the greaser once or twice a day, it is a good discipline makes them at least take a look round at things on a daily basis.

 

 

Thanks Daniel and John.

 

I though you sages would put me right.

 

It's nice to know that whatever seal you have, they all have there failings somewhere.

 

We had a chap a couple of years ago, scrubbed off on the piles and refloated the next tide, he had a Deep Sea Seal, he forgot to "burp" it! ( vent any airbubbles out of the seal after drying out). He went down to his boat a few days later and it had half the Solent inside it!

 

Nipper

[Alec Gatherer]

I use a messy old grease gun. To further my aim of building one of themost tight-arsed boats afloat, instead of buying a proper screw-down greaser, I used a redundant Wanner Mini grease gun with a flexible shaft and tapped a BSP thread into the lube hole in the stern gland/bearing. The Wanner lives in a suitably-placed Terry spring clip. It works fine, looks a bit Heath Robinson, but was in effect free.

[Amicus]

Are there not some mix-ups above?

Where a greaser is fitted, with its associated “greasy gland”, it is fitted because the shaft bearing is a metal one and needs grease.

Where a Volvo type or water lubricated gland is fitted then the bearing is a water lubricated type, Cutlass or similar, you cant mix-n-match.

 

 

When you wind down the greaser, the idea is to pack grease into the bearing, the gland is to stop the grease from passing into the boat. If grease, in any appreciable amount, in getting past the gland and into the boat, then that gland needs attention. The gland need to be “grease tight” to ensure the grease is indeed getting to the bearing. The grease needs to go aft, not forward.

[John Orentas]

I would go further than that, yes the gland should be grease-tight but also if you can turn the greaser in by more than a quarter turn at a time and carry on forcing grease through the bearing, you can bet the stern tube / shaft is well worn.

 

The prop-shaft should be little more than an interference fit in the stern tube bearing so with the sort of pressure that can be exerted with a standard greaser you shouldn't be able to push more than a match-head volume of grease through it in an hour.

 

The components will of course tolerate a lot of wear so the gland will then also be required to prevent canal water passing through.

 

Are we going to have someone telling us that you should have a water drip every 30 seconds or something like that, to aid lubrication and cooling.

[DHutch]

Just a though i had. You arent trying to use normal (watersoluable) grease are you?

[Amicus]

While we are down the blunt end, why are greasers not fitted to the rudder tube? That’s a metal shaft in a metal bearing, innit?

Edited April 30, 2006 by Amicus

[Paul Evans]

True, but the main purpose of the stern gland packing and grease is not so much to lubricate the bearing as to stop water entering the bilge through the very small gap between the prop shaft and the stern tube. Water coming up the tiller tube (turning hard at high revs can produce this) does not normally enter the boat but drains off the counter. You could, I suppose, pack and grease the tiller tube but I suspect that it would make the tiller tougher to turn.

[DHutch]

While we are down the blunt end, why are greasers not fitted to the rudder tube? That’s a metal shaft in a metal bearing, innit?

We have a grease nipple on the bottom bearing. And the top is a sealed unit jobbie.

 

 

Daniel

[Guest]

Hi Nipper.

 

People continue to fit 'old fashioned' stern tubes because they are considered to be better for narrowboats, as Daniel says all the various types you see on sea boats have all been tried out on the canals, certainly the water lubricated types do not work well in gritty canal water, some of the newer sealed ones such as the Volvo design are better but I think the jury is still out.

 

People don't use messy grease guns by the way, most boats are fitted with slightly less messy greasers which only require refilling every couple of years and the amount of grease that goes into the canal is fairly insignificant, canal boat people have got used to tweaking the greaser once or twice a day, it is a good discipline makes them at least take a look round at things on a daily basis.

I can tell you that I am aware of four shells supplied new within the past two years that are supplied with "greaserless" type Vetus sterngear. They consist of one Stirling NB, two Liverpool, and a Piper. There have been others on this forum. As Vetus equipment isn't exactly cheap, I find it surprising that manufacturers would use this equipment unless there was a reason. I am not really sure, but wondered if anyone who owned these units had any thoughts ?

Edited May 1, 2006 by Guest

[ayeaye]

Hia ll,

 

I'v been dealing with my stern glsnd.

Changd the grase for that browny colour stuff, cleaned the pipe, tightened the nuts etc.

 

I haven't been anywhere in the boat yet, going tomorrow. However, although I tightened the greast gun plunger thing, when I tried it today it was slack again. Another turn tightened it agin but I wonder if it will keep needing tightening.

 

Is it suposed to be tight all the time, do I have a problem

 

Is it OK to go slack while you are moored? Is this normal? Do you only need to tighten it after a cruise?

 

TIA

 

TR

 

this thread has got me a bit worried now after just having bought a sailaway with a Vetus engine hence no stern gland, we used to have the stern gland on our old boat & had no bother with it all maybe I've done the wrong thing ?

[bottle]

 

this thread has got me a bit worried now after just having bought a sailaway with a Vetus engine hence no stern gland, we used to have the stern gland on our old boat & had no bother with it all maybe I've done the wrong thing ?

 

And maybe you have not.

[Guest]

this thread has got me a bit worried now after just having bought a sailaway with a Vetus engine hence no stern gland, we used to have the stern gland on our old boat & had no bother with it all maybe I've done the wrong thing ?

I wouldn't worry. Probably people said similar things when the horse was abandoned in favour of the engine. We have a Vetus engine and sterngear, and people I have spoken to with same have indicated no problems with the greaserless gland. In fact some didn't know what a greaser was. They have apparently been around for a few years now.

[Callum]

I've been told that Vetus do not recommend using any kind of flexible coupling, be it Aquadrive, Centaflex or R&D or whatever, with their water lubricated bearings. Anyone else heard this or know otherwise?

 

(Our boatbuilder is recommending the Vetus stern gear, hence the query, btw.)

[stuart]

I've been told that Vetus do not recommend using any kind of flexible coupling, be it Aquadrive, Centaflex or R&D or whatever, with their water lubricated bearings. Anyone else heard this or know otherwise?

 

(Our boatbuilder is recommending the Vetus stern gear, hence the query, btw.)

 

Never personally heard this (and I've got the vetus stuff myself) - have you spoken with vetus?