I bought a used XR upper and Imco lower, standard length.
The person /company I bought it from is in the marine business and said he does lots of drives. The upper and lower came from different boats. He disassembled both the upper and lower , check everything out and re assembled. Said everything looked good with no damage.
I got the drive and installed it on the boat. I filled the drive with gear lube and then noticed that the lube was leaking out the front of the lower where the water pick up slot is. Talked with the seller and he thought it might be the oil passage seal between the upper and lower . He sent me the oil seal and the 2 other o rings and I put them on tonight. Went to fill the drive and its still leaking out the water intake slot. What else can it be?

the o ring between the drive nd the helmet where the oil resevoir feed is?

Take a look at the bolts on the anode on the upper,they can sometimes hold the lower unit away ,preventing the quad ring from making a full seal. Mac

I would agree with what Onedown said.. the anode bolts need to be 1/4" shorter.. or they hit the Imco lower.

That's a great idea. I noticed they were hitting the lower when I was putting it back together, I just thought that was normal. I will cut them off and try it again. I sure hope that is the problem. I will let you know.
Merry Christmas!
Steve

I cut off the bolts and re- filled the drive today. Still leaking but took longer to start leaking. Going to pull the drive tomorrow and take a closer look. Thinking maybe the case got cracked during shipping.

Look at the surfaces that the orings seal to. If there is any nicks, it will leak. You can smear Right Stuff on that area and it will usually seal it up. Also corosion in any of those areas is a problem. Check the quad seal and the oring around the vertical shaft and water passage.
I use the merc sealant on both except the one on the vertical shaft.

Dick

I pulled the drive and then separated the upper from the lower today just to check everything out.. Everything looks normal. The surface that the o ring and quad ring seal to look good with no damage. The seals are new.

Dick, do you use the merc sealant on both sides of the seals? I was just sealing the side in the groove of the quad seal and the water seal. I was using bellows adhesive. Is that the same as the Merc sealant?
I would think the leak has to be on one of those two seals.

I checked the dribble valve seal and water passage seal where the upper connects to the bell housing and didn't see any problems there either. I would think it would be hard to leak from there as the dribble valve and water passage are on opposite sides of the housing.
Where do you buy Right Stuff?
Thanks for your help.
Steve

It's been a while since I started this thread, but though I would let you know what the problem was . The case got cracked internally during shipping and the case was shot.

ouch... who ate the cost?