Help Upper gears ruined, what about lower?

[wsparadise]

I have confirmed that my upper drive gears were ruined apparently due to a poor job changing the lower unit oil. With the metal shavings in the top I suspect the lower unit needs to be disassembled, cleaned and inspected as a minimum. Am I correct or are the upper and lower pretty independent other than sharing oil?

 

[Don S]

Re: Help Upper gears ruined, what about lower?

My guess is you need a complete drive. The upper and lower circulate the oil from one to the other. If there is metal in the oil it goes into all bearing and gear surfaces.

 

[mikeneal]

Re: Help Upper gears ruined, what about lower?

I had a Alpha one a couple years ago and a upper seal leaked into the gimbel housing and it basically ran low on oil. Killed the upper set and I took both halves all apart and replaced bearings throughout but lower gear set was OK, but I think I was lucky rather that being typical .