Water in lower unit?!

[dinghy3000]

hey guys,

just one thing after another with this dreaded outboard of mine. I went to remove the drain plug to change the gear oil in the LU only to find out that it's contaminated with water. I'd say it's a good amount of it too. I noticed that the drain plug did not have an o-ring on it (if it has one or not) and also the vent plug wasn't completely screwed in. pulled the upper vent plug first and nothing came out, so I'm guessing it was also low? when I ran the outboard to check the carb job, it did not take the water very long to get blackened with oil. hopefully it was the gear oil slowly leaking out?

what are my next steps on what to do?
what seal do you guys think could be possibly leaking?

here are a couple pictures of what it looks like.

 

[MH Hawker]

If i thought the seal were missing or suspect i would seal and test before i tore into the LU.

 

[dinghy3000]

what do you mean? replace both o-rings and fill with fresh oil then pressure test?

 

[MH Hawker]

yes or at least one then test and you dont replace the oil to pressure test

 

[Chris1956]

Gee, No seals on the vent and drain plugs will let water in every time. Drain it well, refill with fresh gear oil and use new gaskets on the plugs. Run it a while in the water and examine the gear oil. If she has more water, you likely have a bad seal. If not, you are good to go. Driveshaft seals are easy to replace. Propshaft seals not so much.

 

[dinghy3000]

ok, sounds good I will do that. could I use 75w-90 or 80w-90?

 

[Chris1956]

Use a marine grade gear oil. That is the right stuff...