Yet Another CX Story
Posted: Jun 28th, '13, 09:00
A few years back Uncle Vic got us all started on the CX thing. I wanted to give it a try so I ordered some but the supplier said the aerosol was “hazardous material” and would only ship me the spray bottle version. Fine, I bought a spray bottle of the stuff.
It turns out that the spray bottle stuff is pretty heavy viscous oil, more like the weight of motor oil, and wasn’t convenient to use, not really a substitute for the aerosol cans. So I got a couple of aerosol cans and set the the spray bottle aside where it languished on a shelf.
Lately I had a seal in one of my outdrives leak and let water into the gear case. (I have a B-26 FBSF for those who don't already know ) I drained the old gear oil, which of course was milky, but not terribly bad, and found the leak and repaired it. But no matter how I flushed the gearcase I could not seem to get the last of the water-contaminated gear oil out of the leg.
I pulled the top cover off and peered inside and not surprisingly everywhere there was a little niche or cranny there was milky lube… and by now a very light touch of brown indicating that rust was getting a foot hold on a few of the gear teeth…. Not good.
Out of other ideas and having tried various ways to flush the drive I came upon that old spray bottle of CX. What the heck? With a tip of the hat to Vic Roy I poured the stuff into the drive, cracked the lower drain open to get it to go throughout the unit, and turned the input shaft a few revolutions by hand…..
It was like magic! The brown rust disappeared almost instantly leaving only beautiful shiny gear teeth and the old contaminated lube just washed away like a bad memory.
I repeated the flush a couple of times with the drive tilted this way and that just because I could. Now it is time to put the repaired drive back on the boat.
Thanks, CX…
and Thanks Uncle Vic!
I'm going to replace that spray bottle of CX which I thought I'd never use right away. After all, if you hang out around boats things happen and water gets into places it should not, so I will want to have some on hand should there be a next time a friend or I need it.
Peter
It turns out that the spray bottle stuff is pretty heavy viscous oil, more like the weight of motor oil, and wasn’t convenient to use, not really a substitute for the aerosol cans. So I got a couple of aerosol cans and set the the spray bottle aside where it languished on a shelf.
Lately I had a seal in one of my outdrives leak and let water into the gear case. (I have a B-26 FBSF for those who don't already know ) I drained the old gear oil, which of course was milky, but not terribly bad, and found the leak and repaired it. But no matter how I flushed the gearcase I could not seem to get the last of the water-contaminated gear oil out of the leg.
I pulled the top cover off and peered inside and not surprisingly everywhere there was a little niche or cranny there was milky lube… and by now a very light touch of brown indicating that rust was getting a foot hold on a few of the gear teeth…. Not good.
Out of other ideas and having tried various ways to flush the drive I came upon that old spray bottle of CX. What the heck? With a tip of the hat to Vic Roy I poured the stuff into the drive, cracked the lower drain open to get it to go throughout the unit, and turned the input shaft a few revolutions by hand…..
It was like magic! The brown rust disappeared almost instantly leaving only beautiful shiny gear teeth and the old contaminated lube just washed away like a bad memory.
I repeated the flush a couple of times with the drive tilted this way and that just because I could. Now it is time to put the repaired drive back on the boat.
Thanks, CX…
and Thanks Uncle Vic!
I'm going to replace that spray bottle of CX which I thought I'd never use right away. After all, if you hang out around boats things happen and water gets into places it should not, so I will want to have some on hand should there be a next time a friend or I need it.
Peter