drive oil reservoir emptied on my Driveway

[KCBoater]

I have a 97 Glastron Mercruiser 3.0 w/alpha drive. Have been boating serveral times with no problems. Came home from work the other night and the Drive oil reservoir had emtied itself out the sterndrive all over my driveway. I checked the sterndrive first and changed the oil, clean and fine, let set over night, no additional drainage. While checking over Engine compartment(I'm big on maintenance), found the drive reservoir empty. No leakage inside boat anywhere. Looks like it is coming out the stern drive either from the Weep holes on the sides of the lower unit, or the fitting just in front of the shift actuator rod on the lower unit, where the oil line comes down. I have checked the fitting - not cracked, o-ring is not compromised. What could cause this "drain" all of a sudden?<br />I am new to boating, but not mechanics - my apologies on incorrect referencing to part names.<br /><br />thanks,<br />KCBoater

 

[Blk-n-Blu]

Re: drive oil reservoir emptied on my Driveway

have seen posts where the gasket under the fill cap was dropped into the bilge and since there is pressure in the res when operating it simply pushes the drive oil out. Hope its that simple.

 

[texomatom]

Re: drive oil reservoir emptied on my Driveway

Happened to me. <br />Turned out to be the shift shaft seal.<br />Easy and cheap fix (do the impeller while your in there).<br /><br />HTH<br /><br />Tom

 

[James Bond]

Re: drive oil reservoir emptied on my Driveway

I had the same exact thing hapen to my Alpha One. It ended up being the seal for the gear shift. It completely emptied out into my back yard, killing all the grass. I took it to my shop and they had to pull the bottom half (lower unit) of the outdrive off to replace the part, took them a few hours to fix and cost $135 parts and labor. While they had it apart, had them check the rest of the seals to make sure they were ok, and they were fine.<br /><br />He said that is a very common problem.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: drive oil reservoir emptied on my Driveway

most likely shift shaft seals. worst case its an upper driveshafet seal. its not so mean to fix either one. <br /> good luck and keep posting

 

[KCBoater]

Re: drive oil reservoir emptied on my Driveway

Thanks for all the replies, Looks like I have a weekend project.<br /><br />KCBoater