Allen Head Gearcase Drain/Fill Screw - a marvel

My local Evinrude dealer recently sold me a new gearcase drain/fill screw for a 1991 25 HP engine.
The screw has an allen head on it.....instead of the normal straight-blade screw.

After pumping the gearcase full of oil, it is always a challenge to replace the screw
by holding it between thumb and forefinger (with gear oil coming out). If the screw
is dropped, you have a mess.

The new screw - with its allen head - is far easier to insert with the long end of an
allen wrench in the head. It is easy to make small changes in the angle and turn
the screw with the allen wrench....while maintaining slight pressure against the gearcase.

Try it out, you'll be amazed!!

The drain screws on my '96 150 are hex key as well. You're right, they make it very easy when re-inserting the screws after filling.

You would think they would have figured that out years ago...even a phillips head would have been far better than the original slotted head screw...come to think of it, for most applications, slotted screws really don't make alot of sense.

Had one of the hex head plugs stripped / damaged and would not turn.------But I agree much easier instead of bending down getting a screw driver at just the right angle.

another beauty of the allen screw is that it is easy to center the drill bit in should you have to drill it out. With a left handed drill bit the heat and vibration from the drill bit will probably unscrew it before the drill goes all the way through.

I don't know when it was figured out.
Probably not patentable....but, I'm no patent attorney.
I think the threads on both Evinrude/Johnson and Mercury drain/fill screws are 3/8-16.
Do you think Mercury will copy it???