I HAVE A BRAVO 1 WITH A 1.36 RATIO. I AM RUNNING A 23 MIRAGE.I AM HAVING TROUBLE GETTING OUT OF THE HOLE AND NOT RUNNING AT FACTORY RPMS. IAM RUNNING AT 4400 AND SHOULD BE AT 4600 TO 5000.DOES THE RATIO WORK THE SAME AS A CAR?? WOULD I BE BETTER WITH A 1.50 OR SHOULD I GO WITH A 21 OR 22 PITCH??

Leese,

I wish I could answer your question, but the only thing I know for sure is most boats I have seem with the 1.36 do not run as fast as they would with the 1.50.

Just saw a 252 with a 500 EFI at my dealer Saturday. I was blowned away. It was special ordered by a local Nascar crew chief. O ask how fast it would run and the dealer laughed. He said it was a dog and run high 60's because they guy ordered the wrong gear ratio. He and Baja did everything possible to talk him into getting the 1.5 ratio. He would not listen to they according to the dealer. He paid $69,000 four years ago and kept the boat only one season and sold it. The guy that has it now was changing the lower unit ratio.

I would post your question in Tech. Q&A and you should get the answers you need.

Good luck Mark

The reason to use the 1.36 gear is when you run out of prop (bigger that 32-36). Since you are using a 23 pitch I would first switch to the 1.5. you might then need to go to a bigger prop but I would try tyour 23 first to see what rpm you will be turning. I would not use a 21.

Put a 1.5 ratio on and that 23 will be perfect. You have found the problem to your performance woooooes. Once the 1.5 is on try a 4 blade maybe 24 pitch and your holeshot and midrange eill improve dramatically. I lost 2 mph off the top end until I had the 4 blade labbed and now I love it. Just have to be careful to never hit anything with those blades or ooppss there goes another hundred. I guess that's what we do with boats. Hehe at least it is not a thousand this time. BTW at 4000 rpm w/23 mirage 50-51 mph. 4000rpm w24 labbed B1 56-57mph. Since this is where we usually cruise if we are trying to get somewhere I love it.

Yep,,,my friends 270 es came with a 1:36 and was a real pig,,, we switched him to a 1:50 and a 25 mirage plus,,,holeshot AND top end improved !!!

How costly is it to get new gears and have them installed?

Gearset is around 900.00 then add in the cost of labor. My guess on the labor would be around 750.00.

Are the gears in the outdrive? If so, isn't that close to what a new outdrive costs?

Yes, you have an upper set and a lower set. The lower set controls the ratio of the drive.



I wish???????

Of course the standard Bravos are less then the XR's I run but a new XR is about $8K, and you can spend much more.

WOW. Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to check in the spring to see what gear ration my 270 came as.