Possible GENII Gear Lube Leak

I found a small, green-tinted oil stain (no pool) on the concrete under the skeg on GENII drive, OF461347, and traced it back to the small "weep holes" just above the AVP on each side of the housing. The drive is installed on a 1995 Ebbtide 192SE with only 88 hours on the Merc 4.3LX and has not been run since being winterized in OCT2008. It has been stored in a garage with the drive down. Part of the winterization was to run the engine on a remote tank using outboard 100:1 premix and then fogged the cylinders with aerosol spray (forget the brand). Do I have a gear lube leak and, if so, where do I start looking? Thanks

Re: Possible GENII Gear Lube Leak

Is the oil an emerald green? does it match the color of the gear lube in the resivoir? was the drive, by chance, seperated (upper from lower) prior to being stored?
If not, and you confirm the oil is gear lube, you will have to do a pressure and vacuum test.

Re: Possible GENII Gear Lube Leak

slide the prop off and look to see if your propshaft seal is wet/leaking/full of fishing line. Another GenII leak spot is the shift shaft.

Re: Possible GENII Gear Lube Leak

If its coming out the weep holes as you say, that rules out prop seals. First guess shift shaft seal (i have seen the metal seal pop out of plastic bushing several times) Second is upper box lower driveshaft seals.

Re: Possible GENII Gear Lube Leak

Thanks for the responses. I downloaded Mercury Service Manual #14 which I believe is correct for this GenII. Page 1B-17 has a diagram of "Sterndrive Unit Water Drain Holes". The oil is definitely leaking out of the two drain holes identified on that page as location "d".

The oil appears to match the Mercury/Quicksilver High Performance Gear Oil that was used to service it last time. I pulled a sample of what remained in the bottle and compared. Same green as far as I can tell.

We did NOT remove the drive when we last serviced it in 2008 because it had not been in the water since 2005 and we knew it was going to be stored for several more years. I just find it curious that it started leaking after this long a period of not being run.

I anticipate putting it in the water this summer. Will read up in the manual about what will be involved in removing the drive, repairing the defective part and re-installing. Any particular heads-up or warnings as it will be my first time to pull an I/O? I'm sure I will have questions.

Re: Possible GENII Gear Lube Leak

I had to replace the shift shaft seal on my GenII after discovering the same leak. It was an easy fix with the factory manual. I replaced the impeller while I was in to it. I would suggest you do the same if you tackle this yourself.
HTH
Tom

Re: Possible GENII Gear Lube Leak

UPDATE: The owner, my son, decided the leak was so minor that he wanted to prep the boat for the water asap so we spent most of last weekend bringing it back to life without removing the outdrive. Took our time un-storing the engine and hand-turned it over a few times before trying the starter. Using the Mercruiser Service Bulletin procedure for priming the engine after storage for more than six months and a remote fuel tank with fresh gas, it started and ran on the first crank on muffs. Sounded good and quickly settled down to a smooth idle. We exercised the shifter during the one hour run just to see if that affected the gear oil leak. The tilt&trim pump was acting up at first but straightened out after a few cycles. Water temp went up to 200F initially but came back down to 140F and stayed there. Oil pressure and alternator numbers were good also. Biggest challenge was removing 20+ gallons of old gas. Fortunately, our county accepts gasoline at their recycling centers. Flushed the tank with fresh gas and then fiiled the tank for a run off the main tank. No change in any numbers. Bottom-line is that 48 hours after running it, no trace of gear oil leak at the previous location or anywhere else. Remote gear oil tank is still dead-on where we filled. Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Will report again after some time in the water.

EDIT: Never made into the water in 2010. Trying again real soon in JUN11. More gear oil leaks out of cooling water intakes in the lower unit although it has not been run since 2010 episode described above. I just love this kind of stuff!

Re: Possible GENII Gear Lube Leak

Finally got the boat out of long-term storage and back into the water. No apparent problems detected and gear oil leak continues to be very slight. Plan for this winter is to remove drive, inspect and service items as needed: impeller, seals, boots, etc. Thanks to all who posted!