240 SD Drive Lube Loss

S

sam240

New Member
Dec 1, 2007
18
Southern California
Boat Info
240 DA
Engines
350 mag w/Bravo III Drives
Hello All, I have seen a lot of threads on this site and a lot of helpful information. I purchased my 08 240 SD, 5.7 Bravo III in November of 07. I signed all of the papers on the day of purchase, did my sea trial, and took delivery of the boat. Everything was great until about 3 hours after delivery. The smart craft started beeping at me and I checked the error, it said "check drive lube". I opened the engine bay and the resevoir was bone dry. I went to the local West Marine and picked up some drive lube. I called the dealer and they said maybe there was an air bubble when they filled it. Made sense to me so I forgot about it. Two trips later, I had the same issue so I filled her up again. I took it into to service and the drive was pressure tested, everthing checked out OK. 2 trips later this happend again, so I took it back to service. They could not reproduce the issue but said they replaced a seal. 2 times later it happened again and they could not reproduce the issue. It is now in service again. They are contacting Sea Ray if there are any service bulletins. I am at a loss. Is anyone else having this issue?

-Thanks Sam
 
Sam,

A little bit more info please. Do you keep it on a trailer or do you wet slip it? Have you seen where the lube is leaking. With that much loss should be fairly ease to see where it is going??? Do you check the level before and after each use? Keep good documentation since it should all be covered under warranty.
 
The boat is stored dry on the trailor with the drive in the trailoring position. In the past, the leaking drive lube was never visible. This last time, it was all around the bilge area. I just talked to Merc and Sea Ray, they are going to try replacing the outer prop shaft. If this does not fix it, I am at a loss.
 
If it's in the bildge why would replacing the outer prop shaft fix it? Sounds like it's nothing to do with the drive itself and something to do with something in the bildge.

Also if you never noticed it before but this time you noticed in the bildge that's alot of lube to not notice.
 
Sounds like you need to ck all tubing and connections in the bilge area. There is passthru fitting where the lube hose passes thru the transom plate. However, I would think you would notice these leaks without running the engine as they are under no more pressure either way.

Keep us posted.:smt001
 
240da said:
Sounds like you need to ck all tubing and connections in the bilge area. There is passthru fitting where the lube hose passes thru the transom plate. However, I would think you would notice these leaks without running the engine as they are under no more pressure either way.

Keep us posted.:smt001
Click to expand...
I agree I think that would be obvious as well. I believe that hose is connected to a one way check valve that fills the drive only as needed in response to low pressure or vacuum that is created after the drive oil has cooled after running. If it were disconnected or it would drain freely. I would check the drive oil for water and level asap.
 
Kurt:

I don't think it is really a ck valve as oil moves freely through as it expands and contracts. When I drain mine I just let the bottle drain through the hose (although it is a little slow).

I agree; ck for water intrusion and on a separate note nover store drive in the trailer position -- it will most certainly cause early failure of the u-joint bellows.

Based on description of having lube in bilge I go with the sage advice: "If you hear hoof beats think horses not zebras.":smt001
 
There is a valve. It is a spring & ball bearing that is in the end of the lube hose. When you disconnect the drive the ball bearing pops out and blocks the lube flow.

A crazy thought came to mind. Where this has happened since new could it be that the drive wasn't full to begin with? The bottle on the 496 holds about a cup of grease, and it does take time to drain down.

As for Sam I think he should start making noises about wanting a replacement drive on warranty. This has been a persistent issue since day one that Mercury, Sea Ray and the dealer have not resolved. His warranty might be up, but this was brought to their attention within warranty period and not resolved, there for I believe that it is still a valid claim.

Henry
 
240da said:
Kurt:

I don't think it is really a ck valve as oil moves freely through as it expands and contracts. When I drain mine I just let the bottle drain through the hose (although it is a little slow).":smt001
Click to expand...
I am pretty certain there is a valve there of some sort. The later post suggests a spring ball valve. This type of valve was present on my Bravo 1 on my Crownline so I was assuming it was the same type of valve. I remember my mechanic telling me if it became disconnected the drive would not drain but only the resevoir would. I cannot be sure given I have not torn this one down yet.
 
Sam,
This sounds exactly like what happened to us 2 months after we took delivery of our 240da. The drive lube in my bilge came from a broken plastic fitting just forward of the transom. Mine was covered under warranty of course.
Good Luck.
 
I should have been more clear.

There is a valve that only "comes into play" when the drive is removed from the transom. The ck valve is there only to retain oil in the lines and bottle when the drive is removed and is always open (allowing oil flow) when the drive is bolted up.
 
I thought you were suppose to remove the drive lube before removing the drive?
 
Thanks for all your feedback. I made it clear to my service writer that the outer prop shaft would not cause drive lube to enter the bilge area. After further investigation the leak appeared to be comming from the housing that the drive cable was going into. Merc replaced the entire upper half of the drive under warranty. I have not sea trialed it yet, but I will let you all know.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately, there are too many plastic fittings even with my 2004 B3 gear lube set-up. There is a 90 degree under the res. bottle, a plastic quick disconnect along the transom, THEN there is a plastic thru hull fitting and 90 deg. within the gimbel housing, and finally a plastic ball valve arrangement between the drive and bell housing. I speak from experience when I say you should be able to see the lube exitting particularly that much!!!!

Replacing the lube line from the bell housing to the gimbel housing I cracked my plastic thru hull fitting. Ahh, there was lube running everywhere. By the way, to replace that fitting requires pulling the intake water line & intake fitting behind the motor and loosing 50 pounds to contort yourself in behind the engine. Yes, it can be done.

I would recommend wiping everything down thoroughly. When buy an extra res. bottle fill cap. With a drill enlarge the vent hole to fit the tip of an air gun. NOW THIS IS IMPORTANT ----- Reduce the pressure in the air line to 5-8 pounds. Have someone help you - they pressurize and you look for the leak. A leak as you are describing will be very evident with a little pressure. Again... please be careful to reduce the air pressure. Don't shoot 80 pounds of air into that container, you'll blow the bottle, seals, and be covered in expensive gear lube.

tginz
 
Hello All, they found where the leak was comming from. It was the housing where the throtle cable went into the bell housing. They replaced the upper half of the drive and all is well.
 
Same situation happened with my brand new 310 back in '07. Lost all drive fluid on first ride with wife. 3hrs. later back home on one engine. Fixed under warranty.
 
I had the pleasure of installing a Bravo 3 today for the first time and encountered the "lube check valve". As I got the outdrive about halfway in,oil started running out of it..............

I assume this is normal, as it was unseated and allowing flow to the drive at this point?
 
I have not had to add drive lube since they replaced the top half of my drive until about two weeks ago. How often should you have to add drive lube? Are you guys finding that you have to add drive lube around 5 months or x amount of hours? This is my first boat but I have owned many cars and never had to add transmission fluid. If the fluid is dissapearing, where is it going?
 
sam240 said:
I have not had to add drive lube since they replaced the top half of my drive until about two weeks ago. How often should you have to add drive lube? Are you guys finding that you have to add drive lube around 5 months or x amount of hours? This is my first boat but I have owned many cars and never had to add transmission fluid. If the fluid is dissapearing, where is it going?
Click to expand...

Anytime fluid is changed (I'd assume this was done in your case... or at least drained and added back in) it's normal to have air pockets in the hoses. As the air works it's way out, the fluid level drops some. Eventually it will stop. Once that's worked it's way out, the fluid should basically stay at the same level.

How long does this take to work it's way out? Couldn't give you an actual number, but it depends more on hours of use than calendar time. How many hours on the engine since the upper half was replaced?

Re-filling from the drive's drain all the way up into the bottle helps to eliminate that... but not always completely.
 
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