Should the front bearing housing get alittle warm when cruzing around 3000 rpm?                I mean you can put your hand on it for a couple seconds. then when you idle around it cools off alittle.there is no vibration and no greese sweating out. been using high temp molly greese. and we get about 10 drips a minute.just wondering if thats normal or should it run cool all the time? pump was rebuilt about 7 years ago and we use the boat maybe 8 times a year.

The front bearing housing will get warm, say 120* or so, but not "hot"...Typically they get hot because of too much grease, a failing bearing or a tight drive shaft (meaning pushing against the crankshaft). I'm betting on over greased. A cheap experiment would be to remove the front cover and spray some WD-40 in the cavity and flush some grease out then put it back together and run it again, the WD-40 will act like a solvent, but wont hurt anything....

I use a lithium based marine lube and really never had an issue, moly lubes work, but are not really intended for ball type bearings, it is intended for high temperature tapered roller bearings..Like front disc brake wheel hubs....

GT