Drive oil in bilge
 

I was hooking the boat up to run it on the hose, & noticed drive oil in the bilge.
A quick run down of what I've done recently, I just replaced the transom, & gimbal assy, with an XR, but the drive is Bravo 1. I do not have a lube monitor anymore. When I first removed the drive for the repair, I had drive oil coming out of the shift linkage area. So, I took it to have the shift shaft seals replaced. The oil does not appear to be coming from the drive shaft area, & is not running down the transom. I did find that it was in fact running down the port side of the engine, I traced it all the way up to the shift cable, & the cable actually has oil dripping out of it. So, my thinking is, the shift seals are still leaking & filling up the cavity that the shift cable connects with the linkage. Is this the case, or am I way off base, & actually have bigger issues. Would the fact that the Bravo originally had the monitor, & now the XR has no valve for it, allow the check ball on the drive to leak? That was my other possible thinking, but that doesn't explain the oil coming out of the cable. Anyway, I appreciate any input on this, I plan on removing the drive this afternoon, & take it back to the mechanic, I just don't want to unload on him for a doing a crappy repair if it's not his fault.

Sorry, just realized I said it was coming from the port side of the engine, facing the wrong way...LOL...It is running down the starboard side of the engine.

By "no lube monitor anymore," do you mean you removed the drive reservoir?

Yes, the XR transom assy did not have a hole for the lube connector, so, I removed bottle, & hoses. I just don't know if there is a possibility that the check ball on the drive is actually unseated & leaking. I should know when I remove the drive. I will try to pressure test it before I take it back to the mechanic.

i wonder where the drive is venting its excess pressure?

Yep,that is what I am getting at...sorry it took so long to get back. There are other root causes that could be possible, but this seems like the most obvious. Anytime you have gears churning in oil, there will be expansion/pressurization that needs to be accounted for/relieved. With the lube reservoir gone, which also acts as an expansion tank, the oil is now finding the next path of least resistance.

There may not be enough pressure building up to cause this, and it could still be an o-ring, etc. Without data you will never know... but I would start by re-installing the reservoir.

Zack

Another thing that the more up to date xr guys may be able to help with...

On the Bravo transom assemblies, I would assume that the check ball is there so that when you remove the drive, you don't drain your reservoir on the ground... Is this a correct assumption? And why would the xr go away from this?

Zack

There definetly is no place for the monitor to hook to in the XR housing that I have. I did wonder about the pressure build up, but I know that there are models of Bravos not running the monitor, not sure how these vent. One other thing, I've not run it in the water since the XR transom was added. I've only run it on the hose & put it in gear to get the cable adjusted. That's why I'm thinking hopefully it's something much more simple, like the shift seals were not replaced, or I did something when installing the drive. Unfortunately, I had to work late last nite, so I wasn't able to remove it, hopefully tonight. I really appreciate all the input.

Finally had time to remove the outdrive yesterday. Answered my question, the cavity where the cable hooks to the linkage was full of drive oil, & there was oil dripping out of the cable area in the bell housing. So, I will be dropping the drive back off to the mechanic for him to fix what he was suppose to fix, hopefully he'll get it this time.
After I took it off, I turned the wheel over to one side & looked at the gimbal housing, there is definetly no place for a lube monitor connection, the bell housing has the hole for it. Will there be any problems with pressure build up with running it without a lube monitor? I know there were models that did not run one, it really doesn' look like that big of deal to drill a hole in the area it would normally be, mount a stainless bulk head fitting, & run a line to the bottle. I measured a stainless fitting, it's the same length as the connector. Or would that just be a waste of time? Anyway, any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.