Greasing the gimbal bearing

[Monterey10]

96 Mercruiser 5.7.

I don't seem to be getting grease flowing out of the gimbal bearing seals when trying to pump in grease. (?)

I pulled out the old gimbal bearing. I pumped new grease into the zirk fitting and it flowed out the hole on the bearing seat. I noticed the location of the grease hole on the new bearing. It seems to have a small passage to the side of the bearing. I lined up the new bearing and pounded it into place. I pumped some grease into the zirc fitting, but it doesn't seem to want to go in.

I'm pretty sure that I should be able to see grease to coming out the seal around the bearing shaft, but this is not happening. I actually see a bit of grease coming out from the outside edge of the bearing. (where it slides into the housing. I tried spinning the bearing.

Perhaps my grease is too thick (?) I'm putting in synthetic (red) high performance grease. It is thicker than the black grease I sometimes see.

Perhaps I'm not doing such a good job of aligning the bearing on the grease passage. The bearing seems to bottom out when I pound it in. How much deep does your bearing sit in the housing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Greasing the gimbal bearing

The grease channel in the outer bearing shell needs to line up with the grease path from the transom plate. AND the grease hole in the outer bearing race then needs to line up with the inner hole in the bearing shell.
When you say you lined up the new bearing and pounded it into place are you confident that the bearing is in the housing to it's correct depth and straight.
It sounds as if it's not to me.

 

[cr2k]

Re: Greasing the gimbal bearing

Agree, sounds like your bearing may not be seated.

 

[Monterey10]

Re: Greasing the gimbal bearing

THis was a new bearing. I would assume that the inner and outer grease holes were in alignment. I'll check the alignment of the bearing in the housing.

 

[achris]

Re: Greasing the gimbal bearing

and the tolerance ring needs to be in the right place too. Remember you're pumping grease through a long set of narrows holes, give it a few more strokes of the grease gun and see if it comes out of the bearing....

 

[Joelk]

Re: Greasing the gimbal bearing

I just installed a new gimble bearing today. I did not measure, but if IIRC there was a little less than 1/4" of the bore showing(mine is a 1978) when the bearing is fully seated. I was surprised at how many pumps it took to get grease to come out of the bearing. It came out around the outer race of the bearing several pumps before it came out around the inner race so I agree with the advice give it a few more strokes.

Before installing, I put a punch mark on the outer race of the bearing at the grease hole so that I could confirm it was aligned with the grease passage when I installed it.