Mid-shaft bushing surprise, but maybe caught in time. '04 BF225 x 25" shaft.

I've been reading up on all the old threads, since I just got into the bushings for the first time today. One bushing wasn't even there. I assume the previous owner tried running without it. The other bushing was so ate up it came out with a couple taps from the slide puller. The drive shafts are good......the new bushings fit well, with just a hair of play, and I mean a skinny hair.

The area behind the rubber has significant corrosion in both. I cleaned it all out to assess. Fortunately, I don't have the mid-section blowout damage. There is still enough of the bushing housing left to require grease to get a new one in. So maybe I have a chance to repair this.

I'm going to finish getting back to clean metal. Then I'm going to follow with metal primer and one coat of epoxy (as in barrier coat). Finally, I'm going to fill the channels in the rubber with Mystic 6, which is a heavy grease that remains in place and is highly resistant to being washed away by water. And I will grease the shaft at the bushing.

My dealer says if I do this service every 250 hrs, I should be ok from here on out. We'll see.

I can't see any mechanism for water to get to this bushing, so how does it get lubed, let alone flushed? I read where there is a hole in the vertical water shaft, but I don't see it. Maybe it's corroded closed. I'll look closer.

One guy suggested putting in a grease zirt. I like that idea, and might assess how it could be done.

Any ideas?

Just a tiny SS fitting located where you want to feed the grease and then some petroleum resistant tubing to the location you would like to install the Zerk.

I had done this years ago to lube a bronze propeller shaft cutlass bearing (Stainless Shaft). I used bronze fitting and copper tube but you would want to avoid copper/bronze in your engines.
Art

Good. It seems that I would have to pre-drill the bushing to make a hole for the grease to get to the shaft, and then line that hole up with the SS fitting on the casing that surrounds the bushing. Quirky, but it could work, certainly better than the current design. It might depend on whether I can get in there to drill and tap the bushing housing.

Must be someone who has done something like this before, inside an outboard motor.

What I did was for my Kings Cruiser Sloop w/Yanmar PMX8 Aux Power and it fed the shaft bore deep inside oak keelson between cutlass bearing in bilge and bronze bushing on outside of hull. Cutlass bearings are designed to drip and have a packing and threaded ring to compress to a slow drip... Objective was to minimize drip w/o risking dry bearing and allow smoothest possible 'free-wheeling' prop when under sail w/transmission in neutral. Nothing like your situation at all.

You won't see what is happening when you're pumping your grease gun. I would *guess* that bushing is suspended above a flow of exhaust and spent cooling water which would carry excess grease out through prop exhaust.

I have no idea about what effect a grease coating of lower drive shaft, water pump and leg interior might be, sounds good to me, but my outboard motor knowledge is very limited.

So perhaps a little more research before drilling anything.
Art

Here's an update: I decided not to install a grease zirk, at least for the time being.

I had significant corrosion in both bushing housings, but not enough to punch through the mid-casing. My goal became to "prevent any more". So I coated the inside of the housing with thin epoxy. After curing, I applied 4200 on top of the epoxy and tapped the bushings in place. They went in as if they were greased......a little tight, but not hard to get all the way in place, with room for the washer and c-clip.

I decided to seal off the space between the outer bushing and the wall, so no water could get there. My feeling was.....there is no reason for water to be there in the first place. If I can keep water out of there, maybe I'll have no more corrosion. Water is only needed on the drive shaft where it passes through the bushing.

Before I put the LU back on I stuck a grease gun hose up inside the bushing and squirted some Mystic 6 above the bushing. Then I heavily greased the entire drive shaft and installed.

My feeling was....for installation Honda calls for greasing the drive shaft where it contacts the bushing, so why not add more grease on top of the bushing so it slowly trickles down. How could it hurt? It seems to me it would benefit.

Since this is a bad design anyway, why not try to improve the situation before shelling out $1200 on two new mid-leg housings?

Maybe this was a bad move. I can't see why, though. Only time will tell.

Agree - time will tell. Would like to hear results in about a year.