grease fitting on 86 cobra drive

[flyer4ever]

Hi everyone,First post. I have a 3.0 1986 omc cobra outdrive. On the starbord side of the drive, up near the transom, there is a grease fitting. I have been told this is for the gimble bearing. Is this true? and if so, what kind of grease do I use and how often does it need to be greased? thanks

 

[Don S]

Re: grease fitting on 86 cobra drive

Yes, it's for the gimbal bearing. Normal maintenance is every 100 hours or yearly (which ever comes first) Or at least that is the Volvo interval and they bought out OMC outdrive section, and what Mercruiser recommends on their gimbal bearings, and it's all the same exact kind of bearing and does the same thing in all three.
Personally, I use Mercruisers, ujoint and gimbal bearing grease. I figure if Merc designed a specific grease for their product to keep it in good shape, it will probably work well on all gimbal bearings and ujoints.
Best thing to do, is during winterization when you pull the outdrive, is to grease the gimbal bearing then, reach in and turn it a quarter turn and grease some more. till you get all the old grease out of the bearing. Then clean up all the old grease so it doesn't get spread around.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: grease fitting on 86 cobra drive

Yep, I had take a plastic spoon to scoop the old grease from in front of the bearing where my finger couldn't reach, I think it had been greased annually for ten years and never got the old grease removed.