"Wayne.B" wrote
There are also seals at the bottom which can leak with equally bad
results. It's fairly easy to replace the seals however. I had that
problem with my old outdrive.

Easiest way to troubleshoot a leaky outdrive is a pressure test. You can buy
a gauge made just for drive testing for $30-40. (Or you can make your own
with about $30-40 worth of parts.)