4CLOZIN

blown drive don't know why other than maybe comming out the hole to get on plane boat so heavy have to go full thottle to get on plane still under warranty don't know if it's coved anyone blown 1 of these if so how did merc handle it and what did u do so i can avoid this in the future it was 100 degrees yesterday and i took the wife to dinner instead of listening to the sound of the blower at 5000rpms

nitro/max

4CLOZIN Whats blew on your drive? How many hours on your boat? Talk to another guy this weekend and he had trouble with his drive. 575s but with zx drive, gears went out on his. He said his freinds had trouble with drives too. I have the 525 with the xr so far so good, 52 hours on mine.

masher44

Have a buddy that blew his and it was the gears too. He got it warranteed but I am not sure of the details other than he used his warranty card and they fixed it. What prop are you running to have to use full throttle to get out of the hole? I have a 525 w/ XR and a 28" Bravo one 4 blade and I get out rather easy. It came with a 26" and the 28 gets me above 70 in no time but it does labor a bit out of the hole (compared to the 28) and no probs with 60 hours. Are you sure it is blown?

4CLOZIN

postive it's blown shop took it apart today the shaft was sheered in two the upper gears were ok other than the shaft it's pretty small but the lowers went and when they went it snapped the shaft in the upper was cruisin at like 35-40 comming out of a no wake .. so i was thinking maybe it was the load getting on plane .... 28 prop i think..... 100 hrs on the boat...20hrs on drive i trashed one when i first got the boat so i just bought a new one and now it's shot

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

I don't know how merc handles their warranty(i always seem to void the warranty on everything i own). Iv'e repaired most my outdrives myself w/max machine worx parts,figured why pay someone to do something so simple,for the cost of 1 rebuild you can buy all the merc tools and do it yourself (but,i rebuild transmissions for a living so the basic principals are the same,i have experience the average joe probably doesn't have). Anyways,the first thing that used to break in a bravo 1 was the floor of the upper drive gear,the xr has a nice net forged,straight cut gear with a much thicker floor,breakage of this part is almost unheard of now. The next thing that normally breaks is the support tower that is cast into the housing(a weak little aluminum piece that the right hand drive streses out under a load),merc addresed this with a little bit heavier piece but the aftermarket (like max machine worx) goes way overboard with a chrome moly piece that extends all the way thru the upper section,the stock xr piece can still shear off but usually only in a r/hand drive. the l/hand drive applications all the stress goes on a piece thats similar in the cap(it also can shear off). Stock lower gears rarely break unless a bearing fails,the xr lower gears are really no heavier than stock bravo,they just have a bigger hole in the middle for the bigger prop shaft. Ive seen on this board and in my own experience that there have been issues with the xr pinion gear in the upper scalloping(sorta wears thru the heat treating) then eats up the top gears,pollutes drive with metal,ruins all the bearings thru out the drive. I just replaced a pinion gear while freshening my spare drive,it had around 150 hours on it,was scalloped about .005 thousandth,would have failed in near future.The vertical shaft in the lower can shear in 1/2,so can the coupler that couples upper to the lower,I wouldn't blame your power level as much as i'd blame the stress your drives get due to the weight of your boat,if your warranty doesn't cover the drive,buy a new xr,they have come down alot in price,fix your old one over the winter for a spare and atleast you won't miss hardly any boating if another one breaks. How many hours did it last and how often did you change the oil? I change mine every 20-25 hours and look for metal in it. If you haven't got that many hours on this drive since new and its failing already,if its a part failure from stress more than anything else you should look at upgrading your drives and be done with it,Smitty

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

We posted at same time,are you saying the upper vert shaft broke (its about 5 inches long) and the lower gears or the lower vert shaft and lower gears(the lower vert shaft is about a foot long). I sheared off a lower vert shaft before and it wrecked the lower gears but the lower gears were still in one piece,just scarred them up too bad to use from turning with out support from the vert shaft.

4CLOZIN

Smitty r u saying jus rebuild the existing drive with beefier parts or just get a new one merc says the drive matches that engine but i've seen them blown with 525's

4CLOZIN

lower shaft is intact but the gears are gone and i'm assuming when the gears went it locked and caused the upper vert shaft to snap cuz it's in 2 pieces

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

If you buy a drive outright from max machine worx all new with all the upgrades its about 10,000. I reread your post and i'm assuming you boat has a single motor? If you send yours in it has the beefy stock x/r prop shaft already and it sounds like your upper gears are still ok you could get all the upgrade shafts,hd cap,power tower ,hd coupler and you'd probably get 200 hours or so out of it for around 3500-4000 in upgrades,i'm turning a 30 pitch in a single 27 ft baja w/blown 540,and i get 150 hours or so between breakin upgraded drives

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

Ive had to replace lower gears every time ive been inside a drive for parts breakage but its always because metal chews up the teeth slightly,never because they just broke.was there any sign that a bearing outright failed and let teeth rip eachother apart?