I have a 353 Fastech with 500s, XR's and extension boxes. I purchased this boat at the start of last year, and the previous owner stated that he used Amsoil in the drives. My question is in regards to maintenance. What maintenance needs to be done in order to effectively service the drives at the start of this season? Is it just a simple change of Amsoil? Or is there more to it? I am trying to decide if I am going to do it myself, or have the work done.

i would check the magnets top and bottom . if there is a litle bit of metal fuzz on them that is ok , but if there are chip's or flake's then i would have them gone threw .

my 2cent
mike

Pull both oil plugs and inspect for pieces of metal. Like was said, fuzz is ok.
Drain lube.
Refill Lube by pumping it in from the bottom.
Reinstall top plug.
Grease gimbal bearing.
Grease coupler and U joints.

Thanks for the info. This sounds like a job that I will pay to have done.

You should pull the drives and grease the u-joints.

Every 300 hours or 3 years is what my manual says. I just got done doing mine. Everything looked great, but I did have a lot of dried/hard spline grease on the shaft and coupler splines.

For the time it takes I do them every season. 300 and 3 years just seems way to long to me , but what do I know.

I am with you, I pull mine every winter and inspect the gimbal bearing and u-joints, Tear down the complete drive every other year and swap drives every winter from port/starboard.
Better safe than sorry....

Why do you swap drives from port to starboard every other year? Not trying to be a smart arss, I just have never heard of this.

So that the teeth wear evenly... They rotate in oposite directions. Swapping sides gives even wear to both sides of the gear faces.

Chris