Gear Oil Leak.

[Jughed]

Hello all,

I recently bought a 1995 240 Overnighter. 7.4 Merc, Bravo 1 outdrive. Approx 450 hours on it. It had not run in a little over a year and I have been running it moderately the past two weeks...usually 2-3 hours a few times per week.

I had an alarm go off and upon inspection I noticed that the "gear oil" resevoir was low...very low. I filled with Quicksilver High Perform oil and the alarm stopped. I ran it for a few hours today and when I brought it back in the alarm went off again. I checked and the fluid level was low again. This time I noticed fresh gear oil puddled in the bilge back by the transom. I checked the piston and it was dry as a bone as were most fittings. This is a mystery in trying to track down the leak. The only area that was slightly wet besides the bilge was up front by the resevoir....but even that didn't look like it was leaking.

Before bringing in a mechanic to inspect I'd like to have an idea of what the possibilities could be. Any ideas?

 

[Henry Boyd]

Have a similar issue on our BIII. Have replaced the res bottle, hose to fitting on transom and fitting on transom. It is beginning to look like the seal on the drive housing/drive shaft. If this leaks it leaks into the bellows and then drips into the bilge. Going to find out tomorrow when I take the boat to the boat yard for service. Will let you know how it goes.

Henry

 

[Jimmy Buoy]

Years ago I had a similar problem and found that the reservoir had a series of cracks around the fitting at the bottom of the jug. A new jug was quite expensive since it came with the low level alarm float switch. I decided to use a measured plastic cylinder used for camper's drinking water. Just drilled a hole in the bottom and installed the float switch and it worked great - for under $10!

Hope you find the leak quickly - it sure makes a mess.

 

[Jughed]

Henry....how did you make out on your problem? Is it fixed...and what was the problem.

I had the mechanic look at mine. He noticed the seal on the resevoir cap was missing so we're going to replace that first. We're not sure if the amount of accumulation of oil in the bilge is from the missing seal alone. He also mentioned that there might be a seal leaking which would leak into the bellows and then the bilge.