Oil change on mercruiser outdrive

[jersan]

:confused: I have a 1984 IMP with a rebuilt 350 mercruiser engine bought it 2 years ago. My question is how do you change the oil in the outdrive? I beleive it's an Alpha one. I didn't get any manuals from the former owner, and the manuals I have looked at seem to just tell you how to check the oil and add if needed. I can't find a drain plug on the drive. Any help would be appreciated.

[mark_fitzy]

Hey mate
Best way I have found so far is to buy yourself a manual oil pump(any marine accessories place) and slide the tube down the dipstick, its a slow process but it works, just did mine yesterday

[fasteddy106]

I found this at ask.com - the answer was posted by on a faq by A.J. 's Marine - - - Hope it helps



Outdrive Oil:
Q. Hi, I was wondering if you had directions on how to change the outdrive oil on a Alpha 1 outdrive. I have a 1995 Searay Sundancer 250 with a Mercruiser 5.7L V8.

A. Remove upper and lower vent/drain screws. Drain old oil. Fill outdrive from bottom - usually 1 quart. Inexpensive pump kits are available where you buy Mercruiser lower unit oil. Unit is full when oil comes out top vent. Hint: Replace top vent screw first. This will prevent oil loss when bottom screw is installed. AJR

Q.Thanks for the quick reply. I have two more questions though about changing the outdrive oil. 1.)Should I lower the unit all the way down when draining the the outdrive oil? 2.)When draining the oil, will the oil in the resouivour in the engine compartment drain too? You don't need to change that also, do you?

A. Place outdrive in full down position to change oil. If you let the outdrive drain all night, yes the reservoir will empty. To stop this, remove reservoir from its bracket. Pinch hose very gently to block the oil flow. AJR

[Tim.M]

Mark he asked about the outdrive not the engine oil. Fast eddy is on target. (though you're on target for changing engine oil -- I've used electric pumps in the past to pump through dipstick but not much faster than just manual pumping the oil.) When I put the top vent screw in I often still see a very slight dribble out the bottom fill/drain screw hole so I put the second screw in quickly. No water in outdrive oil, so I don't think this necessarily represents a seal problem (also happened the year I had seals all redone.) A little messy, but this method works fine. You need a sub-$20 pump kit to put the outdrive oil in.