Refilling an OMC Cobra Sterndrive (1986) question

[Keaton]

So I'm having some confusion on the oil filling instruction. I bought a replacement lower unit and have it bolted up.
to fill it I pull the upper vent plug on the lower unit and put a pump on the lower unit drain and pump it till it comes out the lower unit upper vent.

I need to refill the upper unit, what do I do? I was under the impression that I pumped it from the lower unit till it shows up on the dipstick of the upper unit. When I had the 2 pieces apart I didn't see an oil passage that allowed oil to be shared between the upper and lower units. I don't see a lower hole on the upper unit to pump it in either.



side note for forum Mods, there is some funky crap going on with the forum that pops up with an error. so I had to retype this thread 3 times.

 

[Keaton]

unless it is sharing oil through a port where the drive shaft is, and I didn't see that transfer port.

 

[bruceb58]

When the upper and lower is bolted together, it is one shared oil chamber.

You drain from the bottom plug and fill from the middle plug.

If you don't fill from the middle plug, you will ruin your drive. This is the required filling procedure in the service manual.

 

[southkogs]

side note for forum Mods, there is some funky crap going on with the forum that pops up with an error. so I had to retype this thread 3 times.

Not sure what's happening there ... We did have some issues several weeks back that were causing that, but that's largely cleared up. Posting speeds look pretty good right now.

Is yours a Stringer or a Cobra? If it's a Stringer (white), then the upper and lower fill separately.