Confusing gear lube leak

[egclassic]

Pulled boat out of garage to go fill it up with gas before the July 4th weekend price increase, and noticed a small (quarter sized) puddle of gear lube on garage floor.
Found that the lube was coming from the "weep" hole on the starboard side of the outdrive, none from the port side though. I cleaned it up and it seems to have stopped leaking.
Outdrive is a '96 Alpha 1 Gen II.
I did change the water pump last year in August and had it out on the river many times after, but this was the first time I have seen any lube leaking. I have only had it out once this year, due to the weather. Today, I ran it on the muffs, shifted in and out of gear a few times just to see if I could get it to leak again. I let it drain (water) and looked for any gear oil, nothing. The lube monitor was a little past the full line, accidentally put too much in last fall when performing the winterization/maintenance.
So, am I looking at the beginning of a failing seal of some sort?

 

[dubs283]

Re: Confusing gear lube leak

shift shaft seal is the likely culprit

 

[egclassic]

Re: Confusing gear lube leak

shift shaft seal is the likely culprit

Thanks, I will check that this weekend when I drain the lube and drop the lower. I was thinking maybe I screwed up the quad ring or something.

 

[egclassic]

Re: Confusing gear lube leak

Replaced the shift shaft bushing, although it was not the cause of the leak here.
Once I dropped the lower and removed the old quad seal, I noticed that I must have pinched it somehow when I replaced the water pump. Installed a new one, put it all back together and had it out all weekend. No leaks!
Just wanted to post what I had found incase someone else has this problem. When I searched, I came across so many threads with the same issue but no one posted their solution to help others.