mpally

If the reservoir is empty, you may need to purge the air out using the vent screw in the top of the outdrive to ensure there are no air pockets. As mentioned above, If it a new to your boat, just change the fluid and fill with QS gear lube. You should be able to get it at any Mercury authorized shop.

payuppsucker

You need to properly service the drive with new lube. Completely drain and service from the bottom up until the reservoir is nearly full. Complete instructions are easily found on the WWW. Don't play around with this unless you like spending money unnecessarily.

Biggus

iTrader: (1)

You might want to pull the drive and check to see if there is gear oil in the bellows.

waybomb

What drives are these on?

F-2 Speedy

iTrader: (6)

Sense your asking what the bottle is for, I would recommend taking it to a marine shop and have them change the oil in the drive, because if its a B-1 the prop has to come off to drain and refill jmo

glenncal1

+100

Mseuro

I don't know about the rest of you but I think it's just there to cause another leak

onesickpantera

iTrader: (1)

Good advice here. If it were me, I would pull the drive to look for a leak in the bellows, replace the fluid in the drive with QS High-Perf and fill the bottle. I would laso check the gimbal bearing and alignment while the drive is off.

B.Leonard

Thread resurrection here for a related question... Is it possible to do without this reservoir? Has anyone just sealed the passage off into the outdrive and topped it off from the outside plugs? I had that reservoir air-lock once when filling in an outdrive that was down more than just a little. The drive never filled completely and didn't level out till I was on the water and ended up low. Lost the upper gears from it. Besides that seal gets beat up or popped if removing the outdrive for whatever reason doesn't go smooth and the seals a $15ea.

-BL