you got it. wonder how and why I got a 1 and 2. or is that how they all are? its a 1.

lol! You might have a valuable asset there!
As for the cap, it certainly seems like it was just weak? I'd agree that it was stepped on or something like that...

did the repair today. drive did get hot and cooked the oil. plastic reservoir was brittle. trying to get the hose off the bottom of the thing the hose barb broke off with ease. I think brittle box plus overly hot oil ruptured it. it's not in a place to get stepped on. I'm the only person that opens the engine bay and have never walked in the engine. also installed drive shower and new prop. Old prop had slight ding on 2 blades. anyone know a good stainless prop repair guy? heading to the lake this weekend. put it through the paces and post an update after. sorry to get long winded but I love being on the boat, working on the boat, and talking about the boat 🙂

you showing pictures of both drives prompted me to think of something…does the side that ruptured seem like it has cooked outdrive paint? Usually if the drive is getting hot the paint will dis-color. It might not be so obvious if it has the simrek drive showers.

it's a single drive. it has a bravo 1 and Bravo 2 sticker on the single drive. yes it got hot. had a light white coating on the upper. just installed the shower today after draining old oil and flushing until complete clean oil drained out. no metal, no water. very hopeful I got lucky but will find out this weekend. has never got hot before. if it gets hot this weekend the drive is coming off and getting inspected/serviced. not sure if I can do that myself but will most likely try.

Final update on the cracked open gear oil reservoir. After putting in a new one, several flushes, and drive shower install, everything appears to be back to normal. Ran on it pretty hard today. About two hours of towing my girls around on a tube, couple of drag races against my buddies Malibu, and a long cruise at 40mph, had zero problems. Stuck my finger in the reservoir several times just to see if the oil was hot and was barely warm. Time for wash and wax. Be safe and have fun out there. 😎

hoping for you it doesn’t happen again…I would keep an eye on drive oil color, magnets, noise, and shifting.

fyi: feeling temp of resevoir is pointless. There isn’t any real exchange between drive and bottle. Not a good indicator.