ctuck0659

I'm starting to see a little "milk" on the dipstick and a faint sheen of dive oil behind one of my drives. I noticed that the Check Valve assembly was a little bit bent the last time I had the drive off to lube the u-joints. I'm told that that's the most likely source but what I don't usderstand is how would the oil escape the Bell Housing Gasket??

Lofty

Don't let that go unchecked! You'll be in for an expensive repair. There aren't a whole lot of places the water can come IN from. Most likely culprit is the shaft seal.

ctuck0659

I assume you're talking about the upper/ lower gearcase shaft seal. I thought about that too- I could see a little sheen collecting on the anti-cavatation plate after I got it up on the lift out of the water. I left the prop hub half-way in the water for awhile and saw no oil coming out from the hub. I ordered a new O-ring from Bam marine. Is dropping the lower gearcase a simple matter of the 6 nuts, drop it down, replace the o-ring and bolt it back up?

MrCIG

Sounds like you may have damaged the seal on the gimbal that goes aroud the check valve. I would inspect that seal everytime I had the drive off. When putting the drive on, it doesn't take much to damage it. Yes it will leak just sitting there. The gasket does not stop it. Pull the drive and replace the seal and change the gear lube

Mark

ctuck0659

OK Mark, so in your opinion, I'm back to the check-valve seal. Only thing is, there's definetly some (not a lot) but some water in the gearcase. If oil has managed to leak out past the gimbal gasket, would water also get sucked back up into it after running and heating up, then the lower unit droppping back down into the water? Don't know if that makes sense, what do you think?