steering help

[arkamelis]

update

i have raised the outboard to max and not enough angle to allow any liquids to run down towards the top of the pivot tube. unless i carry this out on one steep hill
( is possible ) i can achieve this as the driveway to get the boat out is on one hell of a down slope.
tried loading up some wd40 into a grease gun ( didn't work ) grease gun is the one for using pre loaded tubes.
So i have spent most the evening spraying wd40 around the top of the pivot tube and constantly working outboard lock to lock, again it does feel better but still not how it should be, though i have noticed today the inner top bush is now turning when im moving the outboard lock to lock ( this must be a good sign ? )or the issue is lower down below the bush.
im going to look into a grease gun thats capable of using liquids and not so much grease, my plan is to try and penetrate wd40 so it comes out both ends of the pivot tube, will also look into parking the boat on the hill and get the outboard at the angle to allow liquid to flow towards the top end of pivot tube, it might help .
if this fails i will into the heating up process next.

[arkamelis]

ok got to outboard today, and its like going back to day one after a hour spraying wd40 at it and turning lock to lock a million times, again freed up a little, but now got a squeak from top bush ( annoying ) i have found a good way of though of getting a grease gun to work with wd40. plan is to move boat to steep hill and raise outboard and using grease gun fill pivot tube with wd40 and im hoping the wd40 will have better luck working its way down to the top of the pivot tube, can only but try.
close friend has suggested fitting another grease nipple but close to the top bush, this could help, so another possibility. thing is im trying to get round this without heating the pivot tube up to high temperature, i know this has been recommended and chance is it will work, but my concern is could the damage the bushes ( plastic bushes ) also paint.

[beamishken]

I wouldnt heat it too much more like warm it to help the grease penetrate better
It doesnt want to be hot enough to burn paint or melt plastic thats why i said use a heat gun not a naked flame torch

[paintman]

You don't need to heat it to high temperature.
Use a hot air paint stripper. Take your time & keep the gun moving to evenly warm the whole thing.
If it gets too hot to touch then it's too hot, you're only trying to soften grease!

[arkamelis]

hi guys
and thanks for the help, i feel that im going to end up having to try the heat approach, i have took onboard what your saying " don't cook outboard" and that gentle heat is all thats required . i have just ordered a tube of yamalube grease " white stuff" its suppose to be really good for outboards. should get this next week when this turns up i will then try the warming up method followed by plenty of grease.
i have been again back to outboard today and another tin of wd40 almost gone, i have worked out that the top bush actually rotates when the outboard is at full lift, but when fully down it doesn't turn at all and im getting squeaking when doing lock to lock. until the grease turns up next week im going to give it one last shot with the wd40 in grease gun but this time outboard will be on a good angle downwards ( very steep driveway ) so that any thing going into the pivot tube ( wd40 ) should runs down the pivot tube to the top end, hopefully gravity might pay off with a good soak. i can only but try. ile keep you posted, and again thank you so much for the help

[Waterman]

I had something similar to this on an old outboard.
The cause was due to a non lithium based grease being used by previous owner which had solidified (contaminated with sea water/air over the years) in the tube. I heated the pivot tube with a torch, it pretty much melted and flowed out, I then flushed out the tube as best I could with a degreaser and blew it threw with an air compressor.
I Refilled with a lithium based grease and job done [emoji1303]

[beamishken]

Im not 100%sure but i think the bush is supposed to be stationary and the inner shaft turns in the bush. If that is the case your not helping by turning the bush in the outer housing
Im not 100% sure but it would be worth checking where the movement is supposed to be
Usually a bush is meant to be stationary on either the inner or outer so only one element will wear
Maybe someone who has one can confirm where the movement is supposed to be

[paintman]

I'm inclined to think the same.
Shafts usually turn inside bushes & the bushes are replaceable when worn out.
They're usually a tight fit in the housing & often fitted with a locking adhesive.
I can't think of any bush I've come across that is meant to be locked to a shaft & turns against the housing.
No doubt there will be exceptions I've not yet met, but I do wonder if the issue is that the bush had seized to the shaft & was being forced to turn in the housing.

ETA I don't know if this is correct (I don't know your model or year), but a quick play on Crowley Marine suggests that your bushes are split (made that way!) which makes me think they are supposed to be still against the housing on the assumption that either the split closes as you press them in so gripped by the housing or it's a slot that fits over a projection in the housing to keep it in position.
http://www.crowleymarine.com/yg/ZN75...outboard-130hp
and
http://www.crowleymarine.com/yp/SW62...lrx-1999-130hp part number 12

[arkamelis]

hi guys thanks for the responses

i have taken a look at the crowleymarine,site and it is my outboard 1995 yamaha
v4 130hp. looking at the pictures it does look like there a slot on the bush, i was thinking could this be for easy removal or to allow grease access the bush better when greasing.
i would say at the moment there isn't any grease, well fresh grease around the top bush, when i put the outboard down it straight away stops turning, and yes i believe it is the internal shaft that turns and stay still to the outer sleeve, if i remember correctly the bottom bush is still, so again the internal pin/rod turns against the bush.
what would really help is knowing where the corrosion is, would it be where the bush is, so friction on the side walls of the bush or could the corrosion be lower in the shaft its self, getting back to the issue grease not getting up to the bush, tell me the corrosion might be in the main shaft its self, the bush does turn when the outboard is lifted, but takes some time to get it to turn, when it does it doesn't do a full circuit, its just moves with the lock to lock.
i feel that if i can break down this corrosion it would allow new grease to lubricate the bush correctly and then hopefully it should move lock to lock with ease. im going to warm the shaft and bush up this weekend ( the bush is metal type ) and just hope that i can free up the corrosion. i think its sound a good idea to then pump in as much wd40 as possible and then blow it out somehow, maybe air compressor, can you get a attachment for air line to grease nipple ?

[paintman]

Unfortunately the only way you're going to be sure where any corrosion is or if there are other issues is to remove the motor from the bracket.

I don't think upping the pressure is going to do a lot to shift solidified grease as anything you put in under pressure through a nipple is going to take the line of least resistance to get out.
Might it be possible if you remove the nipple to insert a thin plastic tube into the tube & use that to introduce a solvent? Aerosols of various things - incl WD40 & Brake&Clutch cleaner - often come with thin plastic tube. Bit of heat to soften the plastic tube - or flexible plastic hose - might enable you to get stuff further up into shaft tube.

[Xk59D]

Too much pressure and you will crack the pivot tube, I think you are getting close to having to attempt to strip this down now.

[Fenlander]

>>>Unfortunately the only way you're going to be sure where any corrosion is or if there are other issues is to remove the motor from the bracket.

Now the bush is turning in the bracket that's my feeling.

All further efforts are most likely to make the bush turn ever more freely in the bracket while the bush to pivot interface remains firmly "welded" together.

[paintman]

The risk is that the bush will cause excessive wear on the tube & a new one will be loose.
Not necessarily a major problem as there are ways of dealing with it but it means more work & expense.

[Waterman]

You should be able to remove the grease nipple. Probably an 8mm spanner or socket. Then just spray in your degreaser/wd40 and blow through after. Replace grease nipple and top up with correct type of grease.

[Poly]

If you are worried about heating too much and damaging the paint a few kettles of boiling water over it should warm things up - but won’t be as easy to make just the top warm.

I wouldn’t use WD40 either something like plusgas is far better at breaking down corrosion.

[arkamelis]

went to outboard today and back to square one, even with pumping loads of wd40 into grease nipple,spraying around the top bush loads like i have been doing over the last few days, i just don't think its even been getting close to where the issue lies, and it feels like its made no difference.
i took off the grease nipple today and put the wd40 straw in and sprayed it it just back fired i don't think theres a chamber ( gap ) inside, it felt like the end of the straw was just hitting the rod. i guess when pumping in grease it is under high pressure which would squeeze it into the very tight gap.
i don't think my home made set up with grease gun and wd40 had anywhere near enough pressure to make its way to the areas it was needed.
wish there was some device out there that could be fixed to the grease nipple or something to screw in instead of the grease nipple with a high pressured device to force something like plusgas/strong degreaser into the pivot tube, i know theres concerns about pressure and the risk of the pivot tube cracking, but to be honest i don't think this could happen as grease or oil has already come out the bottom.
so tomorrow will be the big day to try heat method, i don't have the yamalub grease yet but was going to try just heating it up to see if it makes any difference .

sorry guys i know this as been a bit long winded, i do hope that someone els can benefit from this thread in the near future, thank you for all your replies and i will keep you posted, so i write up tomorrow and let you's know how i got in with heat gun

[arkamelis]

was just thinking, about what a friend suggested about drilling and fitting another grease nipple but just closer to the top, i have checked all areas and there is some ares with clearance

[arkamelis]

Hi
i have some good news, not perfect but loads better. i have been over to the boat today and got the heat gun out, i spent about a hour gently warming up the pivot tube. my plan was to do this just to see how effective heating it could be, but it didn't seem to make a hole load of difference, i was at this point just wanting to get some grease in there to see if at last i could get grease coming out of the top and it didn't. grease however did come out right under the bottom of the pivot tube and not even out of the bottom bush, i carried on pumping in grease to the point i was thinking where the hell is all this grease going, turns out the grease gun was at fault, think there was air in it. opened grease gun up and even though the grease gun ram was all the way down, there was still half the tube still in the cartridge, i attempted to fix it, but good went to bad and i ended up throwing the cartridge in the bin ( messy ). so i turned to working the outboard lock to lock and after a couple of mins of doing this i noticed it was getting easer to turn lock to lock maybe not how it should be, but for me brilliant ( result ) but im not getting my hopes up just yet as normally i find that when i get back to the outboard the next day its gone back to being hard to turn again. So my plan for tomorrow is to go back and test the turning ( fingers crossed it will still be easy. So i now intend to heat it up again and load up the grease gun correctly with the new yamalube grease and pump this in, i was going to force some cloth's in the gap bottom of the pivot tube and bracket to help reduce wasting grease coming out of the bottom of pivot tube and hopefully if the grease gun works right i might be able to get the grease coming out the top this time i don't think it can get any worse now that its loosened up more only time will tell now

[paintman]

Just a thought, might it help if you were to jack the bottom of the engine up so the lower pivot bracket is against the bottom of the tube? This would lift the top bracket away from the top of the tube & give a space for the grease to escape.
Use a trolley jack or similar under the bottom of the skeg but do it carefully.

[Fenlander]

Yes that is something I thought and mentioned earlier on. My worry now is that once the bush started to move in the housing this has become the path of least resistance to turning and will continue to be so unless dismantled. I wonder though if the outer bracket could be drilled for a couple of screws to be inserted to try and hold the bush while further attempts are made to free... jacking... heating... thinner oil etc.

What is the bush made of.... nylon?