Loss of gear lube and banging into gear
 

What is typical for a drive reservoir to go dry? Where does the lube go? Nothing in the hull and I don't notice any oil slick on the water.

Also, after I've run the boat for a while, my drive bangs going in/out of forward. After is sits for a bit, start up, leave the dock and it goes into gear smoothe. Seems like the drive lube is working its way out of the clutch mechanism.

Any thoughts?

You may have a bad bellows

Griswald,
a couple of places.. it can leak, one is the propshaft seals. If you get fishline on the shaft it will allow the lube to pass. If your drive gets too hot it will push it out past the propseals. But usually that doesnt drain the bottle. I would suspect the input shaft seal is gone. If this is an early XR, they had problems with pushing the seals out of the holder. There is a replacement seal kit for it. Gives you a new retainer and seal.
I would pull the drive and look for lube in the bellows. If it is there, then that is where the leak is.
The drive clunking into and out of when it is warm?? Well if the lube is not too low, then you have something loose in the shift mechinism, maybe. The clutch cone should be ok, but it is hard to tell with out seeing it apart.
I would pull the drive and look for lube in the bellows, then pull the back cap and look for loose things there. Next I would tear it down and inspect the shift fork and cone and gears..

Hope this helps
Dick

Thanks, Dick.

If you remember, we had a few lengthy conversations during the summer. I blew the floor out of the upper gear and installed the new upgraded gearset. I went through the whole drive and replaced a few bearings, all gaskets and seals. We talked quite a bit about the upper bearing race for the new gears. If you remember, there was some confusion on my part about the height of the tower in the new top cap I bought. Our final decision was that it simply needed to be driven down farther.

I've had about 20hrs on it since the rebuild and the alarm went off last time out. Quick check and noticed the reservoir was just about dry. I haven't seen any fluid leaking in the bilge or anywhere.

p.s. check your PMs