2-4-C Marine Lubricant or Substitute

Boating_Al

Seaman
Joined
Jul 30, 2004
Messages
66
Can marine wheel bearing grease be use instead of 2-4-C to grease gimbal bearing on a Bravo II? This is what a friend of mine tells me he uses.
 

searay3

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 7, 2005
Messages
655
Re: 2-4-C Marine Lubricant or Substitute

Some may disagree, I'm sure there will be debate. Been using marine tube (wheel bearing) grease in the gimble/ujoints/steering for the 19 years I've had i/o's and never had a failure. Keeping water out is critical. Don't have my manuals here, but there is a rating in the manual. As long as what your using meets the requirement you should be fine. pennzoil marine grease is in my gun.
 

Don S

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Aug 31, 2004
Messages
62,321
Re: 2-4-C Marine Lubricant or Substitute

Here is a service bulletin from Mercruiser about using the 2-4-C on gimbal bearings and ujoints. What they don't say is WHY it was a problem. But they do tell the dealers. Seems the teflon in the 2-4-C causes the bearings to slide, instead of roll. Which is not good.

http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Bullet/94/94_13.pdf
 

MrBill

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 4, 2002
Messages
710
Re: 2-4-C Marine Lubricant or Substitute

Bearings, particularly wheel bearings and the like, tend to heat up. Bearing grease is formulated to not liquify under normal bearing warming, and therefore stay in place rather than drain out. Additionally as Don mentions, certain additives and lubricating qualities yield results that are different than intended.

In critical components where high speed, temperature and friction are at extremes, minimizing wear is very important and recommended lubrications tend to perform best. Others may very well do the job reasonably well...but for a few more dollars why not best protect that expensive equipment.
 

Bondo

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Staff member
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Apr 17, 2002
Messages
71,079
Re: 2-4-C Marine Lubricant or Substitute

d:)
 
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