Lube for stuffing tubes...?

[Jim Duda]

Would outboard motor lower unit gear lube work? I have an oil fill tube soldered to the stuffing tube so refilling it is not a hassle...

[Marv829]

Is that an oil or a grease? Oil won't stay long in the shaft. I use just some plain old grease I had laying around and even Vaseline but it seems to need restuffing more often.

[Roger in France]

The reason that the Vaseline needed replacing is that it is, eventually, water solluble.

[Jim Duda]

I'd say it's a THICK oil...SAE 80W90. It smells like the oil we used to put in car manual transmissions and rear ends.

[wingnut163]

try STP oil treatment.

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

I use white lithium bearing grease.
The auto store will sell you a tub that could supply a whole club for years for less than 10 bucks. :)

[ThrustTugKeith]

I would NEVER use 80w90 gear lube!! :eek: Good gawd, man...your directly polluting the water with that crap. I thought I'd try bearing grease. At least it wont leak out into the pond I'm running in (not too much ne way)

Scott

[bluesy]

I second Umi's solution. bought a tube which will last me till my will deals with it for $2.00 CDN. It doesn't even stiffen up in the cooler waters of the "Pacific Southwest" (Pacific Northwest for my neighbours to the south).

later

Doug

[Kmot]

I use Prather cable lube.

[Bobslr]

Hi
I'm with Umi and Bluesy, I've used used white lithium grease for years and never had a problem.
Bob

[Jim Duda]

So...do you inject the white lithium grease directly from the tube it comes in into the oilfill tube on the stuffing tube? (Removing the shaft is a hassle because the grub (set) screws in the rudder tiller and the coupling are hard to get to.) Also, how often do you re-lube? I run strictly in fresh water.

[bluesy]

Jim...

I only lube it when I remove the shaft. It seems to have enough "sticktion" to stay in the stuffing tube. I've never even had to add any, unlike when I lubed with vaseline. That didn't last long at all.

Hope this helps

Doug

[Kmot]

If you use grease, you have to pull the prop shaft.

Since you have installed an oil tube, I would just add the heavy oil every time you run it.