gear oil in bilge

[stormy123]

brought my boat in late sunday evening . had to get up early mon morning n get to work early worked daylight to dark next few days and neglected the boat. left the outdrive up. went out this evening to clean it up n spray it off. jacked it up so i could spray out the bilge and i noticed some gear oil dripping out the drain hole. is this cause i left the outdrive up for three days and something leaking out. i searched it and couldnt find anything oh ya its a omc 3.0 400 stringer. should i not take it out till fixed or was it cause i left the outdrive up. appreciate any help on this

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: gear oil in bilge

The forward seal of the intermediate ball gear shaft is all I can think of. Check the oil level in the intermediate. I suppose you could pressure test it if suspicious.

hmmm... the lower unit is also vented through the casing of the lower shift cable.... maybe take the cover off the shift converter and see if there's gear oil in there - or any cuts/damage to the shift cable inside the transom area. I guess check lower unit oil too. I suppose if tipped all the way up, lower unit oil might try to run up the cable. feel around the cable for gear oil.

I have my old 800 series lower unit here where the rubber inside the hull deteriorated as if some oil or something rotted it- yet the outside portion looked like new.
I ended up wrapping a roll or 2 of electrical tape on it and heat shrinking it- that lower unit is no longer vented I suppose.