Drained the oil out of the drives to prepare for my bellow change & one of the drives had some metal shavings on the drain plug. Oil was also much darker in nature & im pretty sure had some water in it. The other drive looked good, but think i will send them both in for a refresh. Any speculation on the source of the shavings?

Chunks or flakes indicate gear material. Typical with lower gears or XR upper gears.

Dick

Thanks, these were flakes, & TRS drive. Wasnt sure if normal from either the upper or lower.

I'd be looking into them. Might save some additional expense.

They are coming off this week & should have them dropped of over the weekend.

If the drive is out for inspection, can i still go ahead & change the bellow or do i need to wait? Would like to try & get it done over over next couple weekends.

I would wait to make sure whatever parts are needed to rebuild are available. Who is performing your drive rebuilds. I have a guy here at Legendary Marine in Destin, Fl that use to travel the circuit and build drives.

This is bad...

A certain limited quantity of tiny particles (like dust) is normal - it's what gears do. Larger pieces like flakes and chunks are a problem.
kjm5125's photo is indeed bad.

In addition to just looking at the plug I usually strain my lube through a fine mesh strainer to get the whole picture. You don't want anything visible caught in the screen.

I drained both of mine thru a paint strainer and got nothing. Fine stuff on drain plug mags. but one came nice clean and green and the other was black. I'm a bit worried too.

After looking at kjm's i should stop complaining. mine wasnt anywhere near that!

Could a bad bellow allow water in the bilge as well as the drive? Be nice if i could fix two issues at once.