Dono

I was looking at my outdrives yesterday and i cant find the drain plug to drain and fill the drives. I was thinking if i could pull out the plug and keep the resivour full it will flush out the drives and fill with fresh lube all at the same time. What am i missing.

David Haag

The drain plug on my bravo 1 is behind the prop.

Dono

So i've got to pull off the prop to find it. Thanks. Has anyone tried to flush out the drives by puling the plug and letting the gear lube drain thru, at the same time filling the resivour to insure the drive stays full and no air enters?

Keith

Never did it that way, don't want to take the chance of any air entering the system.

I open the reservoir cap and pull the plug, then let it drain completely. You can also open the vent plug once the level has gone below it.

Once draining has stopped, I pump new lube in from the bottom. Once finished with the 2nd bottle (it takes 2.8 qts), I have someone watch the reservoir bottle and stop when it hits the fill line.

berns29scarab

i've always drained them normally. then take the top cap off the drive and fill them that way, once the drive is full replace top cap spin prop shaft a bit then refill reservoir...just my $.02

Daytona30mike

When filling from propshaft up, be sure to take cap off of the reservoir to
prevent pressure buildup.

Mike

Dono

Where is the vent plug located? I took the props off and found the drain. If the bottom drain plug also drains the resivoir it only makes sense ( to me) that with the plug out you could run fresh fluid thru the drive as long as you didnt let the resivoir run dry. Anyone??

David Haag

The other plug is on the right side at the top of the drive. It looks just like the one behind the prop. Take the resivour bottle out and clean it because there will be a buildup of sludge from the drive oil. It comes out easy, no tools needed. You need to refill from the bottom up to avoid air in the system. Very easy to do yourself.

Dono

Thanks, i've done it before on a boat with out a resivior and it had both drain plugs right above one another on the side of the drive, i was just thinking of a cleaner way of filling the drives.

Keith

It's actually a pretty clean and easy job, don't think about it too much.

Remove reservoir cap, remove drain plug and drain. Once drained, attach pump and go through 2 quarts. When connecting 3rd quart, have someone watch the reservoir bottle and keep pumping until you're at the fill line. Install the reservoir cap and you're done.

Disregard the vent plug, the only thing it's really good for is to hook up a temp gauge.

If you try to fill it any other way, you could possible cause an air pocket. Mechanic did it once on my boat, the only time I ever allowed a mechanic to work on those drives. Boat was on the lift, drives in the water, and we could hear a very faint but high pitch whine coming from the stern. Sure enough, he tried to short cut the job and do it "his" way.