Hi Greg,

I am sorry to hear of your misfortunes. I have had work done by Craig, and I was very happy with the job. He was with the Mercury Racing Team for 20 years. Also, I think that you should disclose on this board whom you bought this boat from as you have had nothing but problems, and I think that they scammed you. First the motor, and now the drive.

Tom

Unless my memory is failing me, when you pull a Bravo drive the cable pulls the shift linkage out and puts the drive in reverse. So, when you reattach the drive you have to make sure the cable goes back into the shift linkage jaws and pushes the linkage back into neutral. The shift cable pushes the linkage into the drive to shift into forward. So, it is possible when you beached the boat and pulled the shifter back into neutral that a) the ball on the end of the shift cable broke off or b) somehow the shift cable jaws let loose of the shift cable (highly unlikey since the jaws cannot open when it is pushed back into the drive).

It's a LH rotation, so the cable pulls forward to put into forward gear. Reverse worked at the ramp when I launched, but didn't work when I noticed that I was coming towards the beach too hot!:eek: So just killed the engine and checked the linkage. So it's possible that the ball on the end of the cable broke as I put it into forward and it just went into gear. The XR drive does shift pretty easily and smoothly. I'll find out more tomorrow.

Tom, I never posted the dealer's (most figured it out) name, but did make a posting about the issues and caught a lot of flak from some people but did get a phone call from someone else: I'm not the only one here still recovering from a "rectal breech" and this person had it much worse and much more expensive. They prefer to stay private and I can respect that. Kind of put things in perspective. I will never buy another boat from the other side of the country and without having a survey done or giving it a very close inspection myself.

I do not believe the outdrive problem that I'm experiencing now could of ever been forseen unless someone tore it down to do an inspection, which I am going to have done anyways just for piece of mind. The engine is now right. Everything checks out of both the top end and bottom end. I'll be back up and running soon. I just wish all the unforseen expenses would stop. I still want to buy that Hi-Def Vid camera and 5.1 mic the boat and make cool running videos. But that's on hold now. But the good news is that all that time I spent in the gym paid off. It was beached nearly to its step. I shoulder pressed my boat and was able to get it back into water and get it running again. :evilb: I guess I be a strong Mo-Fo!!! :D

Last year one of my drives locked in forward gear. It was a new XR. Shifter at the helm worked fine. Turned out a screw backed out of the shift cam and lodged between the top gear and top cap. Before I new it, the top gear shaved about 25% of the screw and put metal shavings through out the drive.

You can see the shift cam by taking the back cap off. Was simple to correct, but had to flush the drive about 10 times to get all the metal out of the drive.

It was clearly a Merc defect.

Good luck with it and hope it's simple.

colabella will take care of you!... I talked to him a few times at different poker runs, including Daytona.. He was with merc for years. Ill be in St cloud tomorrow also, working though..

You can let the cat out of the hat. I wanted to keep it private due to this dealer promising to pay me some money owed to me due to him sending me something totally different than promised. He promised to pay me last October and I have yet to see the money. I turned it over to my lawyer finally last week, now it'll probally cost me more than what he owes me, but its the principal of it. He made the comment that he never should have sold the boat to me. He was right after I was the one that did all of the maintenance on the boat for 3 years b4 it was sold to him. He promised I would recieve the boat the same way he recieved it. I think he needs to quit trying to be a salesman and tell the truth. It cost over 18,000 to remedy his BS and cost me out of about 9 races budget-wise that I will have to sit out now this year. You live and you learn, but I figure that even the president of the boat manufacturer telling me how great this guy is, I could trust him. What a crock!Your last statement is partially true, if you buy the boat up the street have it inspected and/or surveyed, not just across the country. I'll give ya a buzz tomorrow and maybe meet ya at Craigs if I can break out of here.

Trent

I meant to say that I will never buy another from across the country AND I will never buy another boat without a survey, period. Sorry your BS is still going on. I'm into mine 8k.........so far which is nothing compared to what you've gone through. I left my drive lock key in Merritt Island and it's being overnighted to me. As soon as I get it, I'm heading over, I'll give you a call. Hopefully this will be a quick fix.

I thought I had a simple broken shift cable last season. Turns out the allen-head set screw that holds the shifter mechanism together backed out and traveled though the drive and turned the inside of the drive to apple sauce.

Same symptom. Drive was running fine, and did not even make any noise. It would not come out of forward. What a PITA trying to dock that day.

Good luck.

Gotcha. Hopefully the drive isn't toast. Good luck!

I think this is just the shift cable on the outdrive end. I had a similiar problem with my Bravo-1. When I put the drive back on I didn't connect the cable correctly. I caught it in the driveway running the boat with the gardenhose. Took the drive off and reattached properly, then adjusted the shift linkage with the MerCrusier Shift Linkage Adjustment Tool. It worked perfectly then.