Bravo 1 drive oil?
 

Hey Guys

On all the outdrives I have ever changed oil on, there was usually a "full" plug at the top of the lower unit and a "fill" hole a the bottom, I was looking at a Bravo 1 today and there is no "fill" hole at the bottom?, there IS a plug at the top, but, nothing at the bottom, a buddy of mine said it fills from behind the prop?, is this normal?, thanks for any info!!

Michael

Yep, behind the prop

Okay, i'm a rookie, but doesn't it Drain from the prop plug and fill from the top? I was planning on just popping the top plug and squirting oil in till it was level with the top hole.

Am I wrong? How the heck am I meant to fill from the bottom without pissing oil everywhere?

You need to fill from the bottom plug up to the top vent plug and if you have a bottle in side the boat keep pumping till it is full also. you need to get all the air pockets pushed out.fill it up till oil starts coming out the top vent then plug it, then keep pumping if you have the bottle inside.Have the drive level. just have some rags on hand. if you are pumping by hand it won't be that many [psi] and it should not go all over the plase. Just let it flow out a little to get the air out at the top vent.

Roger, that makes sense. I just thought it was like topping up a car manual trans, fill, let sit, top up, close and enjoy!

Cheers!

How about if you pumped gear oil until it weeped out the top vent hole, then put the plug back in the top and filled the resevior inside the boat and left the cap off?, wouldn't the weight of the grear oil push the air out?, I guess its just as easy to pump it in from the bottom until both the drive and resevior are full, was just curious?

Thanks!
Michael

I always do like "M20Michael", the bottle usually burps ones, reducing the oil in the bottle (after 5 minutes of driving), I just top it off and then I'm set.

Problems with filling the bottle from the bottom-plug is that the regular mercruiser-single-use-pump starts to leak ones the drive is full and you are trying to push more oil in thru the filled drive and into the small hose that leads to the bottle...

1. Fill from bottom hole until oil comes out of vent
2. Close vent and top off straight into the bottle
3. Check after 3-5 minutes of driving if the "burp" has happend, and top off the bottle

Well I know a lot of guys do it that way also and it seams to work.But [imo] to keep pumping is not that much harder to do.It is also a good feeling you did the best job you can to get all the air out of the rubber hose from the drive to the bottle seeing the hose is about 2-3 feet long, could be one big air pocket.also the bottle is gravity fed and a lot of times the bottle will get gumed up and not flow and it is nice knowing you did your best by pumping to push the old gummy oil out of the way to let new oil flow in to help safe guard your $$ 6 grand plus drive unit.

How about if you filled the lower unit up until it weeped out the top hole, put the plug back in the bottom hole, then moved the pump up and put it in the top vent hole and pumped the rest of the oil in from there?, would it be easier to fill the resevior from there as opposed to the bottom of the lower unit?

I just leave the top plug in, fill it from the bottom, and keep an eye on the resevoir. I've never had any problems and I have a cheap plastic fitting that screws into the lower plug. The only think that sucks is getting that thing unscrewed, and the plug in quickly...