Drive oil change issues...
 

Need some help... doing a oil change on a freshly rebuilt bravo one (AADS). After removing the lower plug and draining the oil overnight I found, to my surprise, that the reservoir never drained. Took the reservoir off, drained and cleaned it out but nothing really junky at the bottom was found. So I started to pump the oil in at the lower unit and the oil will not fill into the reservoir. I got about about 2.5 quarts in and could not pump anymore in no matter how hard I tried (not even an drop dribbled into the reservoir). Could lines between the drive and reservoir be that plugged with junk only after 18ish hours on the new drive?

I would pull the drive and check the valve assembly in the bell housing and see if oil comes out when you push in on it. That will let you know if have flow from the bottle to the drive and that the line isn't pinch somewhere in the bilge. If you have flow to the drive then something is amiss in the oil passage to the upper. I believe there is a spring and checkball there.

Probably some sludge in the line. The Merc gear lube will turn to goop over time.

Drive oil only has 19 easy hours on it and has been in there since late July. I cannot find a kink in the tubes so I'm leaning towards a bad dribble/check valve in the housing but the transom assembly is new. If it is junk in the line, would trying to put some air pressure in the line from the reservoir towards the drive be at all detrimental?

Found the issue...interesting to see there is not a fitting for the check valve to connect to the upper housing.:confused:

Guess a phone call is in order to the shop

https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?i...&sz=w1342-h557

They didn't give you back your original upper. They gave you back an older model that didn't have a reservoir.

Yeah, I'm not too happy about this at all. Hopefully a phone call will get this worked out since there is a 2 year warranty on this and it's only been 2 months.

So what you are saying is that they sold you an upper from like 1988 - 90 era ? Or am I missing something in the posts here ? I can not open the google link

AADS sold you this ? just asking

Yes AADS did the rebuild. Spoke with George today and solved the issue. He pulled the drive and installed the new transom and rebuilt the drive but did not install the drive itself. He had a local marina install the drive when they went through the boat for a once over. It must have been the previous owner who had the upper case switched during a previous rebuild and had no clue or didn't care.

George said it will not void the two year warranty so I'll just be changing/checking the oil a bit more frequently since the reservoir is now useless.

Can't they just install the fitting. I would think it would just be a little machining. Winter project. I would want the reservoir to be functional.

He said about 1K (which would be a proper upper and reinstalling the gears)..Looking at the casting of the upper compared to where the check valve is, it doesn't look like you can tap into anything... https://www.flickr.com/photos/135073.../shares/3wj32L

That sucks. I would still want the reservoir. Without it you won't know if you have a problem until the drive blows.

Your other option would be installing a drive temperature sensor in the upper vent hole. It's a really good thing to have.
But I too would want the proper upper. You can sell the old one.

You can still do a gear oil reservoir as a hose connection will install in the vent plug screw in the upper outdrive. That hose then will can be installed thru the transom ( hole drilled ) and the reservoir mounted in the engine compartment or engine side. Not hard to do at all. This is how it was installed as an option when the bravo first came out that offer no gear oil reservoir

Next I do have all new made kits of temp gauge / oil temp sender that installs in the outdrive for monitoring its temps. The gauge can be set to a desired temp to show a red lite warning as well along with the analog temp reading numbers displayed. I am not ready to bring it to market as I wanted to test it for a full year of boating but have not been able for 2015. FYI

here is the reservoir kit I am talking about. We use to install these way back years ago even for Alpha one apps'

Merc part number is 525-69622a7

http://www.cpperformance.com/p-67706...r-69622a7.aspx

I'd change the upper case out.

The older cases have a void cavity where the check valve would be. Could run a line to the vent plug

Some good info guys, thank you for the feedback.

Might just go with a proper upper case, if I can find a good one over the winter layup. I always think that proper preventative maintenance is key to longevity (especially with a bravo) and I just hate the idea of not using the reservoir.