any ideas on water pickup concern for bravo sea pump, i cannot get it to pull water from strainer, have burned out 2housings and impellers.i can fill the strainer manually and the pump will pull water but it will not draw from the drive, if i put a garden hose on the flush coupler it runs fine

Did you just install the strainer? if you plumbed it backwards you would have exactly the problems you are describing. The water should enter the strainer through the upper fitting and then flow to the sea water pump through the lower fitting.

i know that is logical, but it has been that way since new from the factory, anyway i found last night that the neck at the drive was packed with crud, so i think i got it fixed

Looks like you found your problem.

In addition, stay away from the Sierra branded impellers. Installed one on a buddy's boat and could not get it to pump no matter what we did. Replaced with Mercruiser and all was well.