Oil in the stern drive is clear and at the correct level but

"Me again...got our Seloc manu

"Me again...got our Seloc manual! OK, so we checked the oil. If anyone remembers, it appeared that there was some milky oil in the u-joint bellows. We found a small tear and so know it will need replacing. Worried about oil seal leak, so we checked the dipstick and the oil is at the SAME level as before we ran the boat last weekend and is clear. We are thinking that the milky oil in the bellows is either old, or from the watering down of the U-joint lubrication?? What is your opinion on this idea?

We are ordering bellows, but it looks like we don't have the tools to replace the u-joint one? We do not currently own ANY marine tools, but can start the collection one or two at a time. We've found instructions for the u-joint assembly, but mot finding instructions to put the bellow over the U-joint. Was hoping there would be something about just that, for us simpletons!! LOL Will keep searching.

Ordering bellows, exhaust snout, and any worn parts we might try on the pawl to get it to latch, as replacing the center spring did not help. Any opinion on whether the push rod is a frequent culprit of pawl not latching? We are exploring that now...it looks like it might be bowing a bit.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend; rainy here so not so irritated about the boat not being ready!"

"Hi,

If your boat has been

"Hi,

If your boat has been left in the water for a long period of time it is not uncommon to find milky oil inside the outdrive, as water finds its way into the outdrive either through the prop shaft seals or through the shift cover seal. In that case, an oil change may be the easiest solution, especially if you keep your boat on a trailer.

You don't need any special tools to replace the u-joint bellows. You just have to remove the bolt attaching the steering helmet to the upper gear assembly and the pins attaching the intermediate housing fork to the transom shield. Then unscrew the clamps on the outdrive side of both bellows (drive and exhaust), slide the outdrive U-joint yoke out of the bellhousing drive while removing the outdrive up to 1 foot from the hinges. Then you can access and remove the inner hose clamp of the drive bellows. Pull the bellows out of the bellhousing, clean the area, coat it with perfect seal or similar product, insert a new bellows (make sure you find which way is "up", this is clearly marked in the "Sierra" version) and make sure the rib inside the bellows is perfetly inserted in the groove at the end of the bellhousing. There is a position where the hose clamp screw should be kept. Then, bring the outdrive closer to the bellhousing and guide the splined yoke into the bellhousing shaft (may take a few attempts). Anyway, all this (or most of it) is explained in your brand new Seloc manual.

Good luck, I'm sure you will do fine."

pushrod stuck in yoke will ind

pushrod stuck in yoke will indeed cause reverse lock not to work.

"Pescador, printing these inst

"Pescador, printing these instructions! Thanks! No milky oil in the outdrive, but found some in the U-joint bellows which might have been indicative of an oil leak...but appears not to have an oil leak.

On the pawl - see the pushrod moving, and it does move the pawl as if "unlocking" when lifting the drive. When the drive is lowered, though, things just don't move back enough for the pawl to latch on. We've turned the nut on the end of the pushrod way down, but it doesn't make any difference. The rod doesn't go up any higher and seems to bow a little. Before we got the boat, the nut position was right against the sleeve. Now the nut is about half an inch down from the sleeve and the pushrod doesn't go up any further into that sleeve than it did before. Does what I am describing even make sense?

The parts are all there...sleeve, rod and nut. It's baffling because all the pawl parts look just like the pictures in the manual and don't appear worn. The entire pawl mechanism does shift a little side to side where the rods connect it to the bottom of the fork, but not a lot. Bottom line it that the pawl will not move back far enough to latch on, so thinking that rod is the problem (or the nut/sleeve?). We did read instructions for pawl adjustment and that's why we tried moving the nut. Also read where that sleeve is not supposed to extend more than 1/16" at the top of the fork, and it doesn't. It's probably something really simple and we just don't know what we are looking at. Didn't want to take it all apart before knowing that it's necessary, as we are below novice level knowledge and experience!

Thanks again and again for your ideas!"

"if boat was run with trim par

"if boat was run with trim partly up, it may have crushed the yoke slightly. sleeve may not be sliding freely all the way thru hole. sleeve is threaded. nut is lock nut. try to screw sleeve further onto rod, and see if it makes any difference."

"We don't know if it was e

"We don't know if it was ever run that way since we've only had the boat about 3 or so weeks, but we know the drive isn't locking down and we are going to check that sleeve! We just ordered both bellows, the exhaust outlet and screw, that sleeve (just in case) and tomorrow we're exploring the rod and sleeve idea. Thanks guys, will let you know what we find!!"

"One more question...what woul

"One more question...what would you use to grab hold of the sleeve, or should the whole pawl be disassembled? Was thinking of removing exhaust bellows (since it has been ordered and I'm going to replace it) and reaching through? Was hoping to just grip it somehow and turn it down a bit. I suppose that would be TOO easy, huh??"