Sierra U-joints 18-6406

[Searay205]

put thousands of hours on one boat never replaced a u-joint. compared to what an "old u-joint" from a 1977 camaro saw your boat don't even see 10K miles vs 100K miles. why are you replacing? water? Seams like they should last 4ever.

 

[achris]

...I do wish the Sierra and Quicksilver ones had zerk fittings though! ...

I for one are more than happy to see 'Perma-lube' unis, gimbal bearings and hinge pins used. More things 'greased for life' is less things I have to think about.

And not being able to grease them does not mean a shorter life. In a boat environment, the only thing that will kill off the unis and gimbal bearings is water in the bellows, and even if you had greaseable unis and gimbal bearing, water in the bellows would positively kill them too. So at the end of the day, it makes no difference, just less things to think about when servicing.

So, non-greaseable? :thumb:

Chris........

 

[harringtondav]

I for one are more than happy to see 'Perma-lube' unis, gimbal bearings and hinge pins used. More things 'greased for life' is less things I have to think about.

And not being able to grease them does not mean a shorter life. In a boat environment, the only thing that will kill off the unis and gimbal bearings is water in the bellows, and even if you had greaseable unis and gimbal bearing, water in the bellows would positively kill them too. So at the end of the day, it makes no difference, just less things to think about when servicing.

So, non-greaseable? :thumb:

Chris........

Yep. Mostly. I've purchased Unis with the choice of a pipe plug or zerks included. I loosely installed the zerk and pumped a surprising amount of extra grease to bleed the assembly. ...factory grease seemed a little short. Then I installed the plug and walked away.

If I buy a permalube Uni I'll do the same by adding grease to each cap successively until the last cap lifts up, then wipe off the excess. ...no way to top off a permalube gimbal bearing. ...faith in God and Merc I guess.

ps. Other than the occasional friends/family Alpha 2 repair, I'll be hanging up my Merc tools. I sold our boat and will be moving to VP 4.3/SX next spring. But the outdrive knowledge should transfer. Rinda tool will shore up the gaps on the engine.