Outdrive Removal and Oil Reservoir

[isaacs]

I have a question on removing my outdrive. Won't the gear oil reservoir up in the engine compartment start to empty out onto my garage floor when the outdrive is removed? Pinch off the hose? Empty the reservoir first?

 

[alldodge]

I have a question on removing my outdrive. Won't the gear oil reservoir up in the engine compartment start to empty out onto my garage floor when the outdrive is removed? Pinch off the hose? Empty the reservoir first?

It has a built in fitting (item 32) which closes off when the drive is removed on the bell housing. You will get few dribbles but that's normally about it.
http://www.mercruiserparts.com/bam/subassembly/30862/2686/100

 

[Jcris]

There's a check valve on the gimbal housing that will prevent that. You will get a little leak but not much.

 

[TyeeMan]

Being your drive will be removed I'm presuming you will be draining the gear oil from the drive? That being the case you will want to empty and clean the gear lube monitor as well and refill with fresh gear lube.
The manual states to empty and clean/inspect gear lube monitor when changing out drive oil.

 

[Jcris]

When I serviced the drive recently I made the mistake of actually removing the reservoir (gear lube monitor) completely. Mostly because I found some gunk in the bottom that I could not get completely cleaned out. Getting it back together correctly is tricky. I got it together only to find out the float has a metal band in it to trigger the alarm, which of course I had in there upside down. So I had to remove the plastic keeper and flip it over. That keeper is a split ring that seems quite fragile but it went back on without breaking. Pretty sure I was lucky there.

 

[isaacs]

A check valve! Hey, who knew? I've had the drive off before, but I don't remember how I stopped the oil--it stops itself!

 

[isaacs]

Being your drive will be removed I'm presuming you will be draining the gear oil from the drive? That being the case you will want to empty and clean the gear lube monitor as well and refill with fresh gear lube.
The manual states to empty and clean/inspect gear lube monitor when changing out drive oil.

I just changed my gear oil, but am thinking of changing out the water pump. I guess I'll have to drain some out or plug it up or something when I split the outdrive in half.

I've cleaned the monitor before when the alarm was giving me trouble. I just emptied it, put in some solvent and shook it up--worked great!

 

[TyeeMan]

Yeah, that's what I did last year, , first year I had this boat. The monitor had some shmoo on the bottom so I emptied it and I think I used carb cleaner to clean it out. Follow up with a little compressed air to make sure it was totally dry, then refilled it.