Want to grease the bearings on my inmast but there is no easy way to get to them through the inspection port. Have a couple of ideas but wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions. I have the grease that Selden supplies in the squeeze tube.
Greasing Selden Inmast furler bearings
- Thread starter Ken Honeycutt
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I was going to do mine at the beginning of this year but didn't get the equipment together in time. I am going to get a small pistol grip grease gun that I can load the grease into, install a flexible tube with a needle greasing pin. The needle greasing pin is used to inject grease into a boot protected tie rod end that is greased for life. Should be able to get to the tight areas in the mast furling.
Jake,
Sounds like a good plan..I had something similar in mind but I like your idea better. Think I can get the grease gun and grease pin at the local harbor freight..may have to do some searching for the tube.
Sounds like a good plan..I had something similar in mind but I like your idea better. Think I can get the grease gun and grease pin at the local harbor freight..may have to do some searching for the tube.
Ken, this is an excellent idea. You got me thinking about it and when I went to the manual I see it is supposed to be done on an annual basis. I am sure mine have never been done so I plan on doing it before the end of the season.
It sounds from the instructions as if it is a matter of lifting the rubber boots and squirting in some grease. Sounds pretty straight forward. The Halyard swivel seems like it would be easiest to grease when the sail has been lowered and you can get to it thru the sail feed inspection holes. The others can be done easily through the lower oval plastic plug.
Of course never having done this before there will always be surprises. I will let you know how I manage. Thanks for the thought though.
syringe
A Selden dealer in Florida showed me how to use those disposable syringes they sell at West Marine for Epoxy injection. It is easy to fill the syringe with the blue Selden furler grease and inject it into even small gaps around the furler mechanism.
A Selden dealer in Florida showed me how to use those disposable syringes they sell at West Marine for Epoxy injection. It is easy to fill the syringe with the blue Selden furler grease and inject it into even small gaps around the furler mechanism.
Grease Little Grease Gun!
FYI - Started looking around for a good means to grease those furling bearings and gears! I found this Finish Line mini grease gun on Amazon. It will screw right on the Selden Grease tube and the end reaches into the mast and into the bearings perfectly! I have attached a picture! :dance:
FYI - Started looking around for a good means to grease those furling bearings and gears! I found this Finish Line mini grease gun on Amazon. It will screw right on the Selden Grease tube and the end reaches into the mast and into the bearings perfectly! I have attached a picture! :dance:
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Thanks Nodak. I think that will be an addition to the tool kit. I am pretty sure that there are bearings at the top of the mast as well.
I used a plastic plunger type commonly sold at west marine to do the bearings. I had a hard time trying to lift the boot up on the upper grease point. I was concerned about causing damage to the boot so I left it alone.
Actually CP I thought the same thing when I first looked at it. However I found that the rubber is just a loose skirt that covers the bearing which can be easily lifted to see the bearings and race. One of the things about that mini grease gun I liked was that you can lift the skirt with the tip and put the grease right in between the bearings. Note that you do have to rotate the furler to get all the way around the bearing though.
FYI all... I was at the Annapolis Boat Show this week and spoke with Selden about this subject. Specifically the upper bearing since I had some difficulty seeing it when I was up removing my instruments. Anyway what they told me was the upper bearing is sealed and does not need to be greased. I plan on looking for it again this coming spring just to confirm this but that is what they told me.
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