Bizarre oil leak when changing gimbal Alpha 1

[dhrmx5]

I removed the complete drive unit and replaced the gimbal bearing. While handling the outdrive nothing seemed amiss. It sat off the boat on it's side for 24hrs. When I picked it up I had outdrive oil leaking down and out of the prop. Strange that it sat there fine and then started leaking at the last minute. I did not touch the ujoints or any seals as I had replaced the impeller etc a week ago. Used it once (that's when I figured out the gimbal was bad) no leaky until just now. Any ideas?

 

[achris]

...Any ideas?

Do a pressure test.

 

[dhrmx5]

Do a pressure test.

Was looking for a response as to how it could leak in the absence of a seal problem. I had just used the boat the week previously after doing the impeller with no leakage. Gear oil change showed no water intrusion. Did the gimbal bearing (which is when the outdrive leaked). Yesterday I spent 6 hours on the lake towing a 3 person tube and drained the lube to see if there was any intrusion and it was clean. Really an odd circumstance.

 

[achris]

Without doing a pressure test to find out which seal is leaking, nobody can tell you why.

And just because you used it a week ago and it was fine doesn't mean it is still fine. The time between a seal not leaking and leaking is measured in milliseconds...

Do a pressure test.

Chris.

 

[Rick Stephens]

You might look at the shift shaft seal. It's the only seal that you can bang on something while off the boat.

If not that, then the one rule when working on stuff is coincidences happen, all the time. Time to drain and pressure test.

 

[dhrmx5]

You might look at the shift shaft seal. It's the only seal that you can bang on something while off the boat.

If not that, then the one rule when working on stuff is coincidences happen, all the time. Time to drain and pressure test.

This response is what I was looking for. I am well aware of how to find leaks. I was looking for other's real life experience given there are so few places for the gearcase oil to leak. In my case I determined the shift linkage was slightly jammed and had allowed some leakage. As I said above, the gearcase is working perfectly and not seeing any water intrusion.

 

[achris]

If you wanted to know which seals could be leaking, just look in the stickys.... There's a whole document there on where you'll see oil coming from dependent on which seal is leaking...

Oil leaks

Chris.....