Bravo III drive oil replacement. Photos

[Zorba]

Thought i'd share a step by step for changing drive oil on the Bravo III sterndrive. This is just a suggestion and not the only way to do it.

1. In the ER locate the drive oil reservoir. Facing aft looking at the engine it will be located on the top right.

2. Remove bracket and empty contents of the reservoir into an approved container. In my case that was some old tupperware with a lid that I later place in to an oil pan and took to Autozone to be recycled.

3. Replace bracket and reservoir. It's not shown in the photo but leave the lid off.

4. Leave engine room and head to the stern. Loosen the fill/drain nut located on the bottom right side of the outdrive using a large flathead screwdriver. I needed to use an impact drive to get mine loose. You gamy or may not need to use such force.

5. Remove the vent plug located on the upper right of the drive.

6. Drain all of the oil from the drive. This took me about 30 minutes. I drank a beer while i was waiting

7. While drive oil is draining get your drive oil pump ready. You need this to do this project. You can get it at your local marina or any boating outlet you choose. I used Mercury High Performance Gear Lube +. Quicksilver makes an equivalent drive lube.

8. Make sure oil is completely drained.

9. Once drive oil is completely drain connect your fill pump to the drain/fill hole on the bottom of the outdrive.

10. Start pumping.

11. Once oil starts coming out of the vent hole in a steady stream stop pumping and replace the vent plug.

12. Once you replace the vent resume pumping until the reservoir in the Engine room is filled to operating level.

13. once reservoir is full get you plug ready to put back. Since I used a impact driver to release it i bought a new plug. It was six bucks at MM. Not sure of the part number because the bag blew away.

14. Remove the oil pump and quickly replace the plug. You will use a little drive oil here. Shouldn't be more than a couple of ounces.

15. Check for leaks and if none go boating. Make sure to check you reservoir level after the first use to make sure you have enough oil.

Again by no means is this the only way to do this. I followed step by step what the Mercruiser manual says. You can find it here:
http://mercurymarine.com/_media/pdf...erndrive-models/Non-EC/90-864195072-Maint.pdf

Feel free to correct anything I omitted or if I did something incorrectly.

 

[jdm4]

Thanks for the info and the pictorial. I just completed my first change on a BIII. Glad to know I did it right.

 

[dr.j]

Interesting; I've replaced the lower unit oil every year in the fall as part of my winter lay up and never drained the reservoir and refilled it via the lower drain plug. I just pumped the new gear lube+ till it ran out the vent hole, replaced the plugs and added to the reservoir as needed to replace any air locks. I'll try the "drain and refill" from the bottom at the next change.

 

[skibum]

Does it take the whole gallon?

 

[Zorba]

That was a 2.5 gallon container. The manual says it takes 100.5 ounces. I wasn't keeping track of ounces. The container feels about half empty

 

[Stray Cat]

Good post....I may add to inspect the bottom of the gear lube monitor reservoir for a tar like substance that accumulates as some drives force ferrous particles up into the reservoir. Here is a link to more info...

http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12254&highlight=gear+lube

 

[At Ease]

Great post! Off to the marina to do it myself.

 

[Morpheus]

1 Question and 2 things to add.

Question: Why does your Drive lube look black is that normal?

1. I've heard either way like you or like dr.j works the biggest thing is what you both did which is fill from the bottom till it comes out the vent hole.

2. I know you said you replaced your screw but the biggest thing you need to do is replace the seals on both the vent screw and the bottom drain screw that's very importnant to prevent leaks.

 

[Zorba]

I think it looks black because of the pan it was in. It was the blueish color coming out. Both seals replaced. Thanks for the insight.

 

[tcason]

Do you take off prop(s), start engine and put in gear to warm up lower end oil before changing?

 

[skolbe]

Great post, I always drained the reservoir first and cleaned it if necessary and then once, I had gear lube to the vent hole I would close both holes in the drive and then fill the reservoir. That was how a mechanic said to do it, so I just did it that way, he said just fill the reservoir at the end of the season to the top and by spring it will be at the full line. If you are not winterizing your method makes the most sense. Again great post.

 

[Zorba]

Do you take off prop(s), start engine and put in gear to warm up lower end oil before changing?

I did not run the engine before doing this. It was in the sping so the air temp was probably 65-70. It seemed t odrain just fine and the same or close amont of oil came out that went in.

 

[Zorba]

Great post, I always drained the reservoir first and cleaned it if necessary and then once, I had gear lube to the vent hole I would close both holes in the drive and then fill the reservoir. That was how a mechanic said to do it, so I just did it that way, he said just fill the reservoir at the end of the season to the top and by spring it will be at the full line. If you are not winterizing your method makes the most sense. Again great post.

Thanks,

I basically followed what the maintenance schedule said word for word. Pretty simple job once you get that damn fill/drai screw out...

 

[tbirdvet]

Ia there any reason you need to keeping pumping to refill the reservoir? Why not just stop pumping and fill the bottle from inside? I would think that would be faster.