Loosing drive oil

[tonytav]

Hi guys,have a 05 ,280 dancer twin4.3 s, port motor has plastic square bottle for drive oil. Have to top it off after each trip,maybe a couple of ounces , Can see oil under the motor in the font under harmonic balancer but can't pinpoint were its coming from. Bottom of bottle seems dry, could it be a bad hose or a bad bottle ,does that hose run straight from the bottle to the transom plate ,hard to tell it disappears ,or is there something in between , is it true the fitting on the transom brakes if you look at it. Just wondering if anybody else has delt with this. Thanks again ,Tony

 

[BillK2632]

1. Are you sure it is grear lube under motor - is it blue? If it is motor oil probably from a leaking timing cover gasket - common on GM 4.3s.
2. Gear lube can leak into the boat a couple of ways:
A. From the bottle / hose.
B. At the thru transom fitting. There is a quick connect on the inside, the part that breaks easy is the outside, the plastic nipple that the drive side hose connects to. I know first hand - unless you have access behind your motors it's a real PIA.
C. Upper drive seal can leak oil into bellows and eventually into the bilge.

Really need to find out where the leak is.

 

[tony357]

C is most likely candidate, I had a new merc bravo XR drive loose couple ounces in one hour running time had bad prop shaft seal.. No water was getting in drive just suck it out while running. no slick in water when stopped.