New SE116 Lower Now Upper bad

[mozbornj]

Ok So I had my shop install a new lower SE116 last week. Well I was in the first hour of break in when the boat stopped foward motion.
I got it back to the house to check the unit and pulled the top cap and nothing but 2 smooth chunks of metal left in the upper no teeth at all. I am assuming the shop filled from the top and not the bottom leaving nowhere near enough oil in the unit this was the last boat they worked on Friday afternoon so I am sure it was a hurry up job.
I pressure tested the unit and it has held the pressure for 24 hours at 15 PSI.
HE said they put in 1.5 quarts of oil but with the pressure test good is there anyway the oil could have leaked out and I not see it?
Is it possible for oil to leak out at all if the pressure test was good?
There was no sign of any oil in the top unit. I separated the 2 halves and about 1 tsp ran out of the upper unit tube but that was it. Lower unit was full to the top of clean oil, no water and no shavings present.

Thanks,
MKO JR>

[Bt Doctur]

Ok So I had my shop install a new lower SE116 last week. Well I was in the first hour of break in when the boat stopped foward motion.
I got it back to the house to check the unit and pulled the top cap and nothing but 2 smooth chunks of metal left in the upper no teeth at all. I am assuming the shop filled from the top and not the bottom leaving nowhere near enough oil in the unit this was the last boat they worked on Friday afternoon so I am sure it was a hurry up job.
I pressure tested the unit and it has held the pressure for 24 hours at 15 PSI.
HE said they put in 1.5 quarts of oil but with the pressure test good is there anyway the oil could have leaked out and I not see it?
Is it possible for oil to leak out at all if the pressure test was good?
There was no sign of any oil in the top unit. I separated the 2 halves and about 1 tsp ran out of the upper unit tube but that was it. Lower unit was full to the top of clean oil, no water and no shavings present.

Thanks,
MKO JR>

Sounds like your shop has the problem

[mozbornj]

So do you also see it near impossible for oil to leak with a good pressure test?
I am trying to not be an ass to the owner but he keeps saying his mechanic put 1.5 quarts in the drive but didn't charge me for it, and last time I checked it was around $18 a quart.
The pressure test is what has me thrown. I just don't see it holding pressure for 24 hours and then it leak 1 quart of oil in 30 minutes of use. I just don't see it possible.

[Island]

last time I checked it was around $18 a quart.

The lubrimatic power pro synthetic gear lube is only $7 a quart.

[mozbornj]

The lubrimatic power pro synthetic gear lube is only $7 a quart.

Yeah but he said he used mercury high performance gear lube. and it cost from $12-$16 online.

[Island]

You can get the mercury branded as "Quicksilver High Performance Gear Lube" at $10.20 a quart and I bet dealers get it cheaper. Not really the point of the thread though, so I apologize for taking it off topic of how the lube could have leaked out if the pressure test is good.

[mozbornj]

Not really the point but what shop do you know that is going to use $20 worth of oil and not charge you for it?

[Island]

Unlikely, but not conclusive to me. I would hope that putting oil in an engine or drive is more fundamental to a mechanic than billing even. So ironically, if I believe the mechanic is the type of mechanic that would forget to put oil in I would also suspect that he would not get the billing exact oftentimes either. I don't buy the "I am assuming the shop filled from the top and not the bottom l" either -- what shop doesn't know how to put gearlube in a drive that is capeable of installing one? Wonder if they had someone brand new on the job who won't be coming back for a second day of work?

[mozbornj]

I don't know. But I do know that the last question I asked before leaving with it was "You did fill up the drive with oil right?"
HE kind of hesitated and said yeah.
I know I should have checked it before going out on it but it was sitting on my concrete driveway and no oil was present when I left to go out on the water.
After I got home and pulled the top cover after 45 minutes of running. I found nothing left of the upper gears. and there wasn't even a film of oil in the upper unit. There was no sign of oil anywhere on the unit and that stuff is pretty damn sticky. I would have seen a film or something on the water if it was leaking that fast also, as I stopped several times at sandbars so the kids could swim.
The lower was still full of clean oil.
I drained it and pressure tested it for 36 hours at 15PSI. It didn't leak one bit in 36 hours.
I am trying to figure out if oil could get out even with a good pressure test. I just don't see how its possible.

[mozbornj]

One more thing I noticed done wrong was the shift bellows. I had a full transom service done at the same time.
The shift bellows was wrapped 3 times around the shift cable and he didn't put a crimp ring or hose clamp on the outer/small end of the boot. Just careless mistakes. That is another reason I am really questioning him putting oil in the unit.

[Tech Support]

We do not ship our units with oil in them, so if there was oil in the lower it was put in elsewhere.

Tech Support

[mozbornj]

I know you don't. It was empty from the factory. That is my point.
They either forced the oil in to fast not filling lower unit first or filled from the top down. The lower unit is fine. It was full to the hole on top but only a tsp ran out of the upper when I dropped the lower. I am trying to figure out if oil could leak if the unit passed the pressure test and all leads I have found say no, unless pressure went above 15 PSI. But I still see no signs of oil anywhere on the drive or bellows.
Even at the prop shaft the blue colored grease from the factory is still on there.
I am lost. I am trying to get the shop to pay for the upper since obviosly if a quart of oil drained out in 45 minutes of running I would have seen it somewhere. So obviously they did not fill the drive correctly.
I don't know how long the mechanic has been working or how much experience he has. But I found a couple more careless mistakes he made as earlier posted.