Lubricating steering actuator

[chartscharts]

New power boat owner and trying to learn all the mechanical stuff, so I'm likely to ask lots of dumb questions. You've been warned!

I've got a 5L Mercruiser A1 sterndrive. Wanted to lubricate the steering actuator valve like my manual and Seloc tell me to. Found the zirc fitting. Hooked up my hand grease gun, and figured I'd put in a squeeze or two before I'd see the movement or grease coming out of the big pile of old grease in the vicinity of where the diagram said the relief hole would be.


After 4 squeezes and no sign of anything, I stopped, worried I was about to blow a seal somewhere.


I cleaned up the old grease that was covering everything, and discovered a little rubber thing in the area where the diagram said there'd be a relief hole and at the top if it, it seemed to have a rubber nipple, or hole. The rubber thing seemed squishy like a half-filled water balloon.


SO, my questions are, 1) what's that rubber thing? Is the hole/nipple at the top the relief hole? and 2) Who knows when the previous owner last lubbed this. Is it possible that it would take more than 4 pumps of my gun handle? Should I keep going until I see grease come out of the relief wherever it is?


Other hints?

 

[GA_Boater]

Welcome aboard.

If you're gonna cut and paste from the other forum, at least fix the smilie link or better yet, use our smiles. :smile:

I don't know if you trusted or even read Bondo's advice over there, but as a public service, here it is;

After 4 squeezes and no sign of anything, I stopped, worried I was about to blow a seal somewhere.

Ayuh,..... Do that once a year, 'n ya won't have any problems,...

The actuator don't take much grease anyways,.... The globs ya cleaned up says it's been greased,....

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... I Thought I'd answered this question recently,......

 

[chartscharts]

Howdy folks and thanks for the help! I appreciated Bondo's response, but it didn't really answer my question. He suggested I pump some grease in there once a year and the gobs I cleaned up showed it was greased. But my questions were:

1) What's that rubber thing? Is the hole/nipple at the top the relief hole?
2) Should I keep going until I see grease come out of the relief wherever it is?

The grease I cleaned up was the pre-existin grease before I started.