Drip under the drive
 

My buddy called me today where I have my boat and said there was about a 3" round drip spot of clean drive fluid. It was changed at winterization. He said it looked like it came out of the lower water pick-up. Called the boat shop and I'm supposed to take it in on saturday. Anyone know what this might be?

Guessing you didn't get one of the plugs tight or the O ring has a tear in it. Oil couldn't leak from the pickups. Probably either the upper plug or lower plug I'm guessing.

You're probably just missing the 80 cent o-ring gasket that goes up against the drain screw. I've had this happen to me before. Only time in my life I paid to have the fluids changed, the tech didn't put in a gasket.

If you haven't lost very much fluid (sounds like you haven't), you can remove the prop, remove the drain screw, replace the gasket, then top off from the resevoir. Fluid will not drain quickly from the screw (just leave the cap on the resevoir while you replace the gasket). Very easy fix. I wouldn't pay to have this done.

Note: If the resevoir is empty, you're better off making sure there's no air in the system, drain fluid completely and refill from the bottom.

If ya get a chance, go over there today and pull the prop and check around the drain screw for fluid. I really could not tell where the fluid came from but it was right under the pick up on the floor. It just seems odd to me for a puddle to appear over night when the fluid was changed 5 months ago. I will be coming home from CA sometime tomorrow so you will have to get Rae to move the Mustang out of the way if I am not there.

It may have taken that long to slowly leak, fill up the cavern and start to drip out. I bet when you pull the prop, the cavernous area around the prop shaft will look like a cup filled with green cool aid.

That makes sense.

I'll pull the prop when Tree gets home tomorrow night. I had shoulder surgery and have my arm in an imobilizer, so I am an one arm bandit. The nice part is the marina is owned by my wifes uncle, so he goes easy on me.