Black gear oil?

[cetnor851]

Alpha one gen 2 and I changed my gear oil and it was black. It didn't smell burnt, wasn't milky. Any idea what that could be? I did notice thru the summer from the resivior I was losing gear oil slowly. Any help would be appreciated

 

[scoflaw]

Heat makes it black. Drive showers help. Not a death sentence, but change it regularly

 

[cetnor851]

Drive showers? I've never had this issue before. Not sure what would have changed for it to get hot from previous years to last year.

 

[scoflaw]

friction causes heat, maybe some worn parts in there. Same lube, same hourly changes ?

 

[Lazy Daze]

What brand/type of gear oil is it and how long has it been in there? Have you changed the gear oil yourself in the past?

 

[cetnor851]

Amsoil gear lube, changed every year at the end of the season. However this winter I waited to change it till now instead of October but I pulled the out drive and put it in my basement so there wasn't any freezing issues. Last spring I changed the impeller and some gaskets.. when I drained the lube there was very very very small metal shavings on the magnet plug. No big chunks.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Your signature doesn't show what model you have. What model boat? And what model outdrive?

 

[cetnor851]

200 signature series bow rider, and the outdrive is an mercury alpha one gen 2

 

[Lazy Daze]

OK, then "weight-wise", everything is OK. I was curious about the outdrive version and the amount of weight it was pushing... which would lead back the issue about heat that Scoff brought up.

It's pretty abnormal to see gear oil coming out black (a very small amount of "shavings" is normal, though). But then I have absolutely zero experience with Amsoil. I've been using the synthetic Merc stuff in just about every drive I own for a l-o-n-g time. Not because I work where I do, but Merc's Hi-Perf gear lube really is top notch. So, you could be starting to have an issue, but of course there's no way to diagnose that based solely on this thread. I'd probably flush some gear oil through there and then do your refill. After that, check it after a few hours.

 

[scoflaw]

For the 5 years and 500 hours, I have put on my boat, hi performance lube, changed every 100 hours, mine has always been black with a hint of color. Now not quite as black after I added the drive showers a couple of years ago, Drain magnets are spotless, not even any sludge

 

[cetnor851]

Our boating season here in Michigan isn't very long. I know I didn't have 100hours last season on it. I've been using amsoil for the past 3 years. 75-90w I did make a long trip thru the cheyboygan river into Lk Huron and went underneath the mackinaw bridge. Pretty rough ride for my size boat. After the trip The resivior had little to no gear oil left. So maybe it did get quite a bit hotter? Not sure. I take excellent care of the ol girl and just want to make sure I'm not missing anything nor do I want to do any damage. I appreciate your guys time and info

 

[Loyd Dinneen]

New to boating with outdrives so I need to know what drive showers are. Have always driven outboards.

 

[Espos4]

Drive showers are a series of tubes mounted to the outside of he outdrive. When the boat is running on plane, there is very little water surrounding the outdrive, which can make it run hot on long runs.

The shower has strategically placed open ended tubes that pick up water and Direct it onto the outside case of the outdrive, which will keep it cool.