IMCO extreme failures

JasonSmith · 04-30-2007, 11:17 PM

Anyone had one fail? I did! Took out the tower, shift fork, all the gears & bearings in the upper case.
I filled it with oil, but it looks like a oil related failure. The drive lube monitor was full at the time of failure, but empties after it failed.

Any ideas? It only ran for 10 minutes, but I bought it used. I instected it prior to instilation & all appeared to be in good working order.

B BOATER · 05-01-2007, 10:58 PM

I can say this they suck break all the time. Finally getting my new Bmax HT. Ours broke in the first hour on a brand new boat. No warranty sent it back charged us up the wazzu and then it vibrated so bad we had to have another marina service it. I will never touch another drive of theres over this deal. Funny part is our spare XR that is a reman lasted all season. Our tower went also looked like a bad gear broke of fell through destroying the tower. It honestly broke with no abuse 800 rpms idle 30 mph turning around.

Also no signs of heat no discoloration on anything.

Griff · 05-02-2007, 01:00 AM

I had an Imco Extreme SC upper mated to stock Bravo lower on my Pantera. 550hp, 5200lb boat and 275 hrs and was still going strong. Never had a single issue.

Imco uses the Merc gears and Merc had a batch of bad gears with a lot of failures in the XR's as well.

Mr Gadgets · 05-03-2007, 05:57 AM

Jason,
what kind of power in what size boat? Does it have XR or XZ type gears? How did u fill the drive? You say you inspected it, did you tear it down or just peek inside? Where is the worst heat damage located, lower (fwd) gear and inner bearing? What is the running history, or should we say, how were you driving it prior to and at the time of failure. Give me a general run down on the 10min life of this thing..

If it were a heat/oil related problem, you may have had an air pocket somewhere..

I have rebuilt two SC Extremes, that had XZ gears in them and they held up fine. So they are not all junk. The insides are mostly Merc. If they are over powered or abused or assembled wrong, anything can break.
I am sorry to hear that you had a failure. I know what it is like to buy something and expect it to be "better" and it fails..

Tell us more about what you find inside.. that may help locate the problem..

JasonSmith · 05-03-2007, 10:31 AM

I found a broken verticle drive shaft in the upper, melted bearings in the tower & cap. The gears were "useable" on the pinion & lower, bu the upper was blue as blue could be.
I think it air locked, but I did fill it from the bottom so who knows. All the orings were perfect & it did not leak anywhere we could find.
I'm just going to have to say that I did not get it filled all the way, although it ran out the top hole.

jryan26 · 05-03-2007, 11:24 PM

Thats filled all the way...??? Did you see the 4 uppers for sale?

jryan26 · 05-03-2007, 11:25 PM

How could you fill it any more?

Mr Gadgets · 05-04-2007, 09:39 AM

Sounds like it could be an air bubble.. but it definitely sounds like a lack of lube problem..

JasonSmith · 05-05-2007, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jryan26

Thats filled all the way...??? Did you see the 4 uppers for sale?

Nope. I think I need them!

Panther · 05-05-2007, 12:44 AM

Seems common for that drive, I had it happen to me twice before getting rid of them.

The first time it chucked a tooth on the upper drive gear. The second time it chucked a tooth and wiped out all the bearings in the upper.

I cut my losses, had the drives fixed and sold them.