HotPursuit

Mercury increased shaft size when the Cat hulls started racing.The weak
link was the tapper.I broke many small shafts and made the change to
the 26 spline.Haven't broken one sense.

Reed Jensen

You can't beat the Speedies for being sturdy.... I had the 3's... upgraded the trannies at Huber... put them behind blown 540's... never had a moment of trouble. The only attention the drives needed was the shafts had some corrosion on the hard chroming in the seal area... let water into the drive... drained the drives,,, removed the shafts... had them precision ground down and stainless sleeves installed in the seal area... never any problems after that.

Tonto

As for the trannies being the weak link, that's why I run crash boxes. I try keep things simple and reliable, if that's possible.
Robert

aTX427

Tonto, I have heard the term used in racing, but what exactly is a crash box?

I would like to build a set of tall deck 4.625 to 4.75 stroke / 4.5 bore NA motors, Dart big M, Crower cranks, billet rods, AFR heads, big tube CMI headers, etc. that will run on 87 octane. Are EFI systems available for something like this? What cam do you think would work for an application like this? I have one complete 500efi top end that I thought may be modified to work on a tall deck or not. Otherwise a single carb setup will work fine. I am looking to build a real clean turn key 625-675hp motors that I can run all day and last a few seasons between rebuilds. Been down the efi blower path and want to keep everything simple this time.

Tonto

John,
The "crash box" is simply an "in-out" gear box, you are either "in-gear" (fwd, neu, rev) or not. You cannot shift from one to the other with the engine running. When you get to the dock, you set-up one engine for forward and one for reverse to get into your slip depending on conditions, then you start which engine you want running to make the boat move the way you want it to. They got their name because at some point you ARE going to "crash" into the dock. It WILL make you think about EVERY move you make when docking. Oh, and you want to make DAMN sure the engine is going to start. Did you get my e-mail?

Robert

joe900sc

I have over 250 hours on my set-up (35 fountain/KE800s/SSMIIIs) without every having a problem. I use the BAM super cyborg trannys and they work great...never problem.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the awsome handling characteristics of Speedmasters. They are"glued" to the water and my tracking and stability is greatly improved...

HotPursuit

Great looking drives Joe,I agree 100%. (Enough Said) Keith

joe900sc

Thanks Hotpersuit!