You can do it either way - I prefer to fill it up the the vent, plug it up - then top off the inside resevoir. Once the initial burp happens it's good to go.

Thats the way I do it. Keep checking the resevior the first few times out. Top off as nessesary.

He is right, gunk will clog the resevior. I take mine apart and cleen it about every other year.

Now I am confused as hell...also a rookie...
 

so does all of this mean that when you drain the lower unit, you are also draining the outdrive and the reservoir bottle?

And, by the way, do some Bravos have the drain plug on the side, and some behind the prop, or has somebody put a lower on mine that should not be there?

Scott

As far as I know most Bravo 1's are behind the prop. My old boat had an Alpha and it was on the side. My friend has a Bravo 3 and it is on the side. It seems like I have seen some Bravo 1's on the side but I am not sure of of the years.

Yes to drain it it is best if you pull the black cap off the bottle in side the boat, Then pull the lower plug off the drive then loosen the side vent plug as much as you can, have a rag in hand.

some of the early bravo 1's where on the side of the drive, then they moved it behind the prop. They did it for better performance less drag and no air bubbles to the prop. If I remember right it was from late 1988 - 1990. just a year or too.

It is a hole lot easyr if you remove the zink plate all you need is a 5/16 socet to get the to bolts out.

I have my resevoir off now, since [suprise!!] it leaks, I am gonna clean it out before I put it back in and seal it up so it hopefully doesn't leak for awhile, do you need to clean the hose too?, or just the resevior?

I agree, the biggest pain in butt is trying to get that damn [oil soaked] plug back IN the hole, without cross threading it, or................dropping it back IN to the bucket you put under the lower unit to stop oil from running all over your driveway and watching helplessly as ALL of the oil you just spent 20 mins pumping INTO the lower unit proceeds to drain back out, as you fish around in a futile attempt to find the plug, then try and re install the plug, only to realize you have to put all the oil that drained out back IN again before you can try [again] to reinstall the plug, thats usually when you will go to stand up and catch the lip of the drain bucket with your knee or toe and dump 3 quarts of oil all over the driveway.................Ahem....Not speaking for experience or anything!

Have lots of rags and maybe even disposable gloves?, it might just be me, but, that Hypoid oil smells awful, especially when its used, reminds me of draining the rear end fluid out of cars back in my automotive days, that stuff made me gag, and if it got on your hands it was there for days!

Michael

I see that as a lot of extra work. Also should be about the same pressure to fill the bottle the rest of the way. Just pump slow and steady.Some times you might need to put a pin hole in the top of the [qt] oil bottle.

Your spilling half the oil all over the place well then it sounds like your doing the job the right way good job. [LOL] No you don't need to clean the hose should be ok.