best grease/oil to use on a prop shaft

[jestersknight]

i have a 1/8 inch shaft in a tube that has an id almost the same as the od of the shaft (good tight fit) what is the best oi or grease to coat the shaft in before putting it in the tube to make the whole thing waterproof?

[more coffee]

I use white grease ...It stays soft in the cold water
wont drag your shaft down and load up the motor..

Of course im not against just using straight forward Vaseline in such a tight fit either ..

[Prins Willem]

I prefer white lithium grease. It is a marine grade lube. It won't run out of the shaft tube and leave you dry, or leave an oil slick on the water, like light oil will. It does require pulling the shaft to clean out the dirty grease occasionally, frequency depending on use and environment.

[jestersknight]

I use white grease ...It stays soft in the cold water
wont drag your shaft down and load up the motor..

Of course im not against just using straight forward Vaseline in such a tight fit either ..

by white grease are you refering to the white lithium or somethign like crisco?

this is my first boat, and while i will be able to get the shafts out on this one its going to be pretty hard to do so. something that wont require much if any upkeep would be good. (of course, when is that not the case though...)

[fgroza]

I like the ProBoat blue marine grease. It stays where you put it and repels water very well.
Frank

[CGAux26]

I use Lubriplate white lithium grease. It comes in a plastic tube, so you can cut the end to fit your stuffing tube and pump 'er full easily. Catch the excess in a paper towel on the other end.

The other thing is I think you will have high drag between shaft and tube if the tube is a snug fit to the shaft for its full length. Here is an article showing one good way to make a stuffing tube out of 3 successively larger diameters of brass tubing.

http://nwrcsm.freeyellow.com/ScratchBuildingStuffingBoxes.PDF

This allows you to have a proper close bearing clearance at each end of the shaft, but larger clearance in between to minimize friction and allow for more grease. Brass tubing is sold in most hardware stores for cheap, in diameters that fit snugly inside one another.

I left off the oil tube, mainly because my soldering skills are not up to that. So I just pull the shaft twice a year and re-grease it.

[more coffee]

by white grease are you refering to the white lithium or somethign like crisco?

this is my first boat, and while i will be able to get the shafts out on this one its going to be pretty hard to do so. something that wont require much if any upkeep would be good. (of course, when is that not the case though...)


lithium

but its also sold in tub's at the hardware store as "white grease"

[-kno3-]

I use the white lithium grease in my steam tug and it performs quite satisfactory. No water ever got into the hull and the prop shaft turns easily. Besides, I put the grease in a long time ago (about 2 years, when I was building the hull) and had no problems with running out etc.