Borg Warner trans leak

[RGrew176]

Sounds like a plan. Hope all goes well.

[bud37]

Actually... there is one more question for you.......what color is your combo, black/merc, blue/crusader, red /volvo........the reason I ask is that merc / velvet drive had an output shaft lip seal upgrade way back when.....don't know about the others.

I have the merc, that is how I know.

[650Guy]

Mine is actually black MERC/black trans. Is that the setup that had an upgrade?

[bud37]

Source of the post Mine is actually black MERC/black trans. Is that the setup that had an upgrade?

If you take the serial numbers from your engines and trans to your mercruiser dealer/marina that deals with mercs, they will be able to look up the warranty service history for your combo ( if recorded ), then maybe you can find out where you stand......good luck man, you may not have any problem anyway, but good info to know regardless.

[650Guy]

So just as an update. after cleaning the entire bilge bay pretty well, I ran to the islands this weekend (about 1 hour each way). Summer finally decided to grace us with a nice weekend here on Lake Erie. After the 2 hours of use I got what I would call a spray of Trans Fluid under the trans again. There wasn't a noticeable drop in fluid on the dipstick in quantity. Based on this, it appears to be leaking out the shaft. I would deem the leak minor at this point so am hoping to add some transmission stop leak to the fluid and milk it til winter while monitoring it for progression. not ideal, but am truly hoping to be able to make this a winter project vs cutting into the short boating season.

[tomschauer]

I personally would not any stop leak in the system, they tend to cause more problems then they solve. Try putting a oil absorbent mat under it and keep it toped off until fall. If it is the rear seal, it most likely failed due to misalignment of the shaft, so you will want to have that verified when you replace the seal.

[650Guy]

Oh that is good to know about the mis-alignment! I had it checked in the fall of 17 (survey) during my purchase and before I put her away for the winter. How often do you check that? Could be it was out of ailment with the previous owner and he fixed it prior to my purchase??

Ya know, your plan seems to be better than mine. I know that trans stop leak stuff is supposed to "swell seals" and if the rest of mine are still hanging tough I may do exactly what you say... "cause more problems than I solve".

So mat and top it off it is! We really don't put a TON of hours on her every year anyway... maybe 30-50 hours? Couple trips to the Islands... maybe some beach days... that's about it. So I SHOULD be able to limp it til winter. (there is no praying emoji, but if there was... enter it here .

[km1125]

If it is just dripping, then the mat would do fine. If it's actually "spraying" because it's being thrown around because of he shaft then I'd consider rigging up a shield around the shaft or coupling made up of some thin aluminum and just clamp it to something convenient. That way your engine compartment doesn't get all messy and it contains the oil to dripping just on the mat.

[650Guy]

Hmmm... I think I like where your going with this. it isn't really "dripping" its more spraying as the shaft spins. and as a matter of fact, at this point its still so minor that its just not a HUGE mess. but my crazy clean self is down there cleaning it up every time.

I'm gonna have to think about how to rig this without running the risk of it catching the shaft and causing me much more troubles.

[km1125]

As I was reading your posts, I was picturing what I'd do on mine if I had a similar issue. I have Velvet Drives with Reduction gears, so there's a nice "collar" on the end of the reduction gear just ahead of the shaft coupling. I could put a couple hose clamps on that to hold a shield. The shield could be made of very light aluminum so if it did get caught on something it would just get ripped apart. I could even shape it to fit over the coupling if that's where the oil was flinging from.

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