old outboard: grease ignition or not.

sailboy21 · #1 11-10-2008

Google is returning conflicting advice, so hopefully someone here knows. I have a 1967 Evidnrude Lightwin that I just finished rebuilding. I am trying to find out if it is appropriate to grease the cam lobe that the breaker points are on or not. I have found people saying yes, or no and oil the felt pad that sits on the cam, don't oil the pad....

The breaker points have a wear-able follower that looks like a nylon or plastic material (phenolic maybe?). I am afraid to use the trial and error method since the wrong choice could harm the follower.

This guy says grease it and I am leaning towards that direction. The felt wiper doesn't make sense to me if I use grease. Seems like it would just wipe it all off in a couple revs. In this pic it looks like he didn't use the felt pad. I rebuilt mine just as I found it.

The new points came with little grease pills. I greased the pivot but haven't put any on the cam yet.
Thanks

Idiens · #2 11-10-2008

I'm in the no grease, no oil, camp.

tommays · #3 11-10-2008

You dont need anything the tiny amount of lube on the wiper will outlast the usefull life of the points

And if you use stuff it will most likely foul the points, you be supprised were it flys at 4000+ RPM

Rockter · #4 11-10-2008

This is a classic motorcycle set-up. Put two or three drops of engine oil on the wee felt pad. You must oil that pad or the can follower will wear down too quickly.

merc2dogs · #5 11-10-2008

Quite often when you get newpoints they have a small capsule of lube included. Supposed to place the lube on the pad to keep the follower from wearing too quickly.

Seen many unlubed points where the follower has worn to nothing, reducing the point gap.

Ken

timebandit · #6 11-10-2008

OMG !!!

Grease on the pivot.

Oil on the wiper.

Readjust the points after about an hour of running for best results.

SVDistantStar · #7 11-10-2008

^^^^^he has it right^^^^^

Make sure to readjust those points. It will run like crap if you dont, ask me how i know....

riphonda · #8 11-12-2008

On those older omc's alot of the mechanical type stuff I use teflon spray and dry it off ( buff it with a rag until dry and slippery so as not to leave it wet and flammable) I'll usually hit both surfaces that are to be touching (in this case though not the felt). In my experience grease tends to dry up and make things stick on these old babies. Nevermind the mess it makes when being spun around at high speeds. The felt pad is probably not there to hold lubricant: I think people often overgrease/ oil things when its not needed. Id try to teflon spray the cam lobe with dupont teflon spray, buff dry and call it a day. Nothing on the felt. My $.02.

sailboy21 · #9 11-12-2008

Thanks for the advice. I had actually run it for about an hour with OTIS gun lube. Point gap didn't change any. I put 2 drops of Rem-oil on the pad. Both products have teflon and are designed to prevent rust.
I am calling it good!