shawn

When I winterized my boat, I found three flakes of metal in the XR drives, one in one drive and two in the other drive. They are silver in color and they are between .125 and .187 in diameter and maybe .003 - .005 thick. Last year I had the upper gears in one drive replaced and the lower gear set replaced in the other. Do these need to be fixed, or is this OK for another season. There was also the standard hairs on the magnets too. What amount of metal is "normal"?

thanks
Shawn

The Menace

You will always have a certain amount of wear. The more the drive is tortured the more the gears smash together and the more metal is filed or chipped off the face of the gears.

What is really bad is to find chunks. What you may be seeing is residue from when it was rebuilt. Maybe it was not thouroughly flushed. You may want to have what you found checked by a dealer or check it frequently next year.

The amazing thing about metal filings in drive fluid is how it multiplies once there is a little. It keeps machining down the gears. After a while the gerars will have a very precision uniformed appearance before they melt down or break off.

KAAMA

iTrader: (1)

Hopefully, you're running drive showers to keep them cool and changing the drive lube often----like about every 25 hours or so. I have had to replace the pinion gears in my drives within the first 50 hours because of excessive wear. I bought my XR's in the fall of 2000 and may have had some poorly heat treated gears from Merc back then. I run drive showers and Redline Shockproof Heavy. Since rebuilding my XR's and running the Redline lube I had the drives taken apart and inspected for wear. This was done after about 15-20 hours of operation since the rebuild and no wear patterns or any signs of wear has appeared thus far.

Mr Gadgets

Shawn,
Can you feel the flakes when you pinch them between your fingers? If so, I always assume the worst and go in and look. It may be left over from the last rebuild, but it should not!! When a drive is rebuilt, it needs to be washed so it can be eatin out of!! That's my .02. The lower gears as well as the XR uppers will wear until they start to give up the middle of the tooth. Metal starts to tear a way and then they are past useable.
Did the oil have a metalic glow to it? If so with chunks, I would have them torn down to be on the safe side. Winter is coming, that is when you need to qualify your drives, not in the begining of the warm season. If the gears are ok, then a tear down and reassemble is not that expensive. If I see metalic in the oil, I look carefully at the bearings. Any scratches and I replace them if high hp is in front of it. If not, then you can run them kinda ugly, but that plan will eventually kill everything in the drive. So it is best to take a look and see what is what, then plan and pay accordingly. Or drive it till it dies!! Your choice!!
Hope this helps, good luck.
Dick

mmwalters

Shawn I found some raisins in my corn flakes after I left them out over night. At least I think they are raisins. How could I know what they are. How many are ok. They did taste ok. PS.... I did catch a mouse today in a mouse trap ????

Biggus

iTrader: (1)

bultmand

the silver pieces are the worst. if you haven't already, take the top cover off and examine the gears carefully. i use a magnifier and an led flashlight around dusk. small, shiny pits in the gears signal time for replacement. this is where the silver flakes are coming from.