Gear oil change... Is it normal to have a tiny bit of water in the fluid?

J3ff

Just doing a routine change of the gear oil and it started off nice and blue green and clear but towards the end I started to see some milkiness to it. The first couple pictures are from the beginning. Let me know what you think and if it's a concern or not.


And then towards the end..

aero3113

I think if there was a major issue, the water would be at the bottom (Not sure if this theory works with thick gear oil though). Could be condensation from sitting over the winter.

reneechris14

I agree probably condensation from being out side. 

J3ff

The mechanic here said not to worry... But I've already replaced this engine so I do that now..

I overfilled it when I put fluid back in from the bottom drain hole but that's resulted in some interesting stuff in the tank.

Handymans342

Change that out!

Michael T

Yeah, I don't like that either.

Black_Diamond

I would drain, flush out and refill.  I just did this with both of mine. Mineral Spiris flushed thru the drive and reservoir (after draining the reservoir first). 

J3ff

So this was AFTER letting it all drain out! 

I used the pump to get all that nasty junk out. Then pumped a little more into the drain to see what else would come out.. thankfully it turned the normal color and no more of that junk. However nothing's ever that easy right? Will go drain it all out again on Friday (Launching sat morning)  - what's this mineral spirits BD? 

Liberty44140

I read somewhere that even a few ounces of water in a drive will turn all of the lube Milkey so that has to be more condensation or trace amounts. 

Black_Diamond

You can get mineral spirits at any paint store. It is great to flush out the gearbox with as it will not hurt anything, flows easy (think like kerosene) and compatible with any oil as it is a lubricant.  You can pump it in the top hole on the drive and let it flow out the bottom. When clean, you can pump in the gear oil from the top as a final ‘flush’ before you fill as normal from the bottom. 

Make sure that top fill plug is removed when you fill with oil so it will not push thru the reservoir. 

J3ff

Liberty44140 said:

I read somewhere that even a few ounces of water in a drive will turn all of the lube Milkey so that has to be more condensation or trace amounts. 

yeah, the mechanic came over and said as long as it doesn't smell bad it's good to go.. guess that's why we do things ourselves?  

aero3113

That moisture could have been in the reservoir and not in the drive. When you pumped oil back in it stirred up what was residual in the bottom of the reservoir. I bet if you pulled the reservoir and cleaned it out before you drained you would have no moisture in the drive.

aero3113

I’m only saying that because it looks like there is more moisture in the reservoir than what drained out of the drive.

Black_Diamond

FYI: a few oz of water in a drive is a disaster in the making. It takes very little water in oil to ruin the lubrication. Very little. 

rasbury

I feel your pain with what you have been through but heed the words of Al- can't hurt to have it checked.

J3ff

ah boy. At this point I'd be more inclined into just replacing it, thus having a completely new everything.  Anyone know any place that will pay at least something for a drive like this ? 

Willhound

J3ff said:

ah boy. At this point I'd be more inclined into just replacing it, thus having a completely new everything.  Anyone know any place that will pay at least something for a drive like this ? 

Why? A leaky seal is no big catastrophe and likely fixed for under $1000. Doesn't indicate any issues with the drive. You could put a whole new unit on and still develop a leaky seal in a few years. Just fix the leak @J3ff

Liberty44140

Agree with Will, drives get re sealed all the time

J3ff

Well, it's also the original drive that came with the boat and last year I noticed some low RPM vibration after taking the trip to cape cod and back.. also for resale value.. 

rasbury

It's a boat, don't even worry about resale value...

Willhound

Yep. It's  your $$$, do what you want. Vibration could be as simple as a gimble bearing which us easy to change when resealing. A new drive won't necessarily increase value. Except to the current owner. Unless you're planning to sell within the next year or so. At which point a potential buyer might even wonder, why was the drive changed? Did he hit something? 

J3ff

When the new engine went in, I also had a new transom mount installed because they broke the old one.. included everything between the engine and drive, so new gimbal bearing and all.. I'll have them pressure test it today.. hopefully the drive oil just hasn't been changed in a while. Who knows. 

zaverin1

Also did you replace your vent and drain o rings 

andyd

My shipyard charges $60 for a pressure test. I'd rather know than not know about a leak, even if it's a pinhole.

Andy

reneechris14

I'm confused that oil is green you ran that boat a 100 hours last year. If that water was in there all year that woukd not be that color.

J3ff

Okay, that's where I keep going back and fourth. I would say I possibly ran it more that 100 hours.. will check on VV tomorrow.. the problem isn't the green, it's all that brown that it's in the pictures too!!

reneechris14

If the brown was in there when you were running, it would of blended to ??. Both my drives had 40 hours after a fresh reseal and the oil didn't come out that green. Kinda black 

J3ff

So here's the deal. Went down to take a closer look with new plugs and o rings.  This previous owner who told me his marina maintained the boat keeps teaching me lessons.  THERE WERE NO ORINGS ON THE PLUGS! when I started this thread I only quickly did a fluid swap, assumed all was good. Read up a lot and saw people saying they swap plugs and ORINGS every time. Went down today to do the job... Used a rubber stopper to keep most of the oil inside and a tiny knife/flat head screw driver to try and get the oring off of the drive. It only hit metal the entire time, called the shop manager out and told him the story, he confirmed, no ORINGS present in the plugs or the drain hole/vent hole. Unbelievable

Liberty44140

Bad and good, at least you don’t have a deal issue! Congrats! 

GMSLITHO

Two years ago My brother didn’t tighten his drain/fill screw and it fell out during the end of the season ,he didn’t realize it put the boat away for the winter .........................we’ll  In the spring he had to replaces the  drive 

J3ff

well just sold an old boat of mine today, then heard the bilge pump running on the rinker, fixed that and happened to look over at the oil resivour . 



So coupled with the pictures in the first post, I guess there is absolutely a leak somewhere. Even though it looks like there was some oil in it, there really was ZERO in there. 

Going to have it pressure tested (obviously it'll fail) and resealed this winter...only have a few weeks left anyway. 

A friend with a maxium said that his has a low oil alarm.. does ours have the same thing? I've heard no alarm ever..