Relocating Drive Fill Bottles
 

The drive fluid bottles on my 36 are all the way in the back under a lip on the transom. A real ***** to get the caps off and to fill.

Just looked at a buddies 38 Scarab and they are mounted on the front of the engines.

I want to move mine to the front. Seems pretty simple, but I do not want to make any mistakes or take a chance that would cost me.

Has anyone done this? Is there anything you need to be careful of?

Seems to me you just need to keep them high up and keep the hose straight.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mark

The bottles on my stock 454's are located forward and top left of the engine. The brackets also support the fuel/water seperator.

Check with your merc dealer. This was a change from year effectivity not boat.

If your dealer is willing to work with you the change may be possible but not cheap

Dont worry about it!! you dont run that boat hard enough to worry about using any drive oil!!:D :D :D

I would think you are okay as long as you have enough hose and splice some wires to make sure your low fluid alarm still works. Why not just keep them on the transom and move them down a few inches?? May want to double check, but I would think it is no big deal. Did it on my 98 Outlaw. LAter.

Plus if you leave them on the transom , it's two less things to remove when pulling the engines. That's where mine are and they're staying there:p

This is where my EngineOil and DriveOil filter are and I would like to get both of them remote mounted instead of being on the front of the engines like they are.

Mine are way in the back probably close to where yours are. I just take the bungie black rubber thing off and pull the bottle out a little bit to fill it. Takes a couple minutes per side.:cool:

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

I guess I will just have to take a closer look at it and decide if it is worth the move. The transom is really cluttered. I cannot move the bottles down.

Thanks guys.

You can move them anywhere, as long as you keep them higher than the drives. Or the alternative is to remove them. They only refill the drive when you have lost fluid, anyway..... or another alternative is use only one bottle and "T" it to both drives. :cool:

Thanks, that is exactly what I was looking for.

The bracket holding the newer square bottle is designed to be able to mount to the fuel filter bracket on bigger Mercruisers. I wouldn't tee the two into one bottle. It cuts down on volume and can increase internal drive pressure from temp increases. Also, if you do get water in one drive, it may get into the other. Just thinking out loud, but I wouldn't tee them together.

Good thought, but I would not use one bottle either. Can make future diagnostics an issue, if you are leaking out fluid or in water from one of the drives, plus, if you drain the bottle on one drive and do not keep an eye on it you could end up damaging both drives. Iwould use two bottles, cuts downs on the chance of something wrong going unnoticed. What about on the back of the seat??

You guys have good points. I don't think using one bottle for two drives is a good idea.

If you check drive oil levels before each run, just like you are supposed to check engine oil levels, one bottle should not be a problem. If it starts going down excessively, just add the second bottle for monitoring......or pull the prop and look for oil slime....
and I believe before water could be transferred from one drive to another thru a 3/16 hose, the bottle would have to be empty! and shame on you for letting that happen!! Do you never raise the hatch during a day of boating?? Most do, just to look things over.....that's how I found 7 quarts of oil in the bilge BEFORE I totally destroyed an engine (just lost one cylinder & piston). ;)

just lost? didnt you just buy a boat to? the piston loss wasnt on the new boat i hope?

The melted piston was lost in the 312 Formula I bought in February last year as a Valentines Day gift for my wife!! (:D ) That is the best excuse for buying a boat I have ever come up with!! It happened due to gov't mandated fuel additives. For the complete story search for "Meltdown" ....it's interesting. A journey of discovery!!:eek:

whoa, definietly sounds interesting, i will search. F-ing govt though, take our money and then still screw us over.