I am thinking of adding a Zerk fitting to the grease cup in order to simplify maintenance. If the grease cup cap thick enough to drill and tap a hole for a zerk fitting?
Your idea of fitting a Zerk fitting to the grease tube for the Rudder would simplify that part of the maintenance but – then you would not crawl down there and check everything else out like cables etc!!! which are just as important as greasing.
Safe Sailing
Cedric
Single Malt 26C 207
Chester Nova Scotia
No, I would still crawl down there I would just take a grease gun with me instead of a can of grease and a putty knife.
Tim,
You should not need to do that. The thread is a standard thread for the zerk fitting. I suggest that you do what most of us have done here in Solomons. Go to the hardware store and buy a threaded hose fitting long enough to suit your needs. locate the zerk fitting at a location more suitable for easy access. When I had my NS 22, I simply located the zerk fitting into the motor well. For your boat any type of mount can be fabricated for convenient access. In my NS 30 I am going to located the zerk in my propane locker. All the fittings work together and I think most were designed for an RV. The only hole I made was from below into the motor well. In the NS 30 the same will apply except for a hole into the propane locker.
Good luck. You don’t need luck with this job as it is an easy one. Somewhere in the forum you should be able to find details as I wrote this up a few years ago.
Butch
Butch Garren
Nonsuch 30 #196
Whiskers II
Solomons, MD
Butch,
Your insurance surveyor may not like you putting a hole in the propane locker that might leak into the engine compartment. I know you would seal the area around the hose but if the seal ever failed it could be bad. At a minimum the hose should enter near the top of the locker.
I think it would be better to locate the zerk fitting in one of the cockpit lockers and avoid the propane locker all together. You could hang the fitting just below and behind the the drain channel at the back of the locker lid so it is out of the way but easy to get to.
Just a thought.
Mark Powers
La Reina 26C
Vancouver, B.C.
Hi Tim,
I did this a couple of seasons ago on my 30U... makes it so much easier!
It was a straight replacement.... unscrewed the entire grease cup assembly, screwed in the zerk fitting. Pumpwd in grease. Done.
I bought zerk fittings at a Nappa Auto Parts store... I dont recall the thread size. I took the grease cup into the store and just eyeballed the thread posts side by side.
Peter Grabow
S/V CAKEWALK III
1987 30U 430
Jersey City, NJ
Thanks Mark,
That's a good thought and there are other options.
Thanks!
Butch
Butch Garren
Nonsuch 30 #196
Whiskers II
Solomons, MD