top cap
 

Who makes a good top cap for a 1999 Bravo 1 drive

Teague.

I perfer the XR ribbed top cap.. has a steel tower..

Dick,

Over a Teague cap? I didnt know the XR was a better cap.

Vinny,
I have a customer that uses the Teague caps on a 50' Hustler. His maintenance schedule for broken XR's is short, to say the least. Started with 20hrs and we are up to 80hrs. This year with treated gears I am not sure how many hours are on them. But when he does shred a set up upper gears I find that on the edge of the Teague cap there is almost always pitting. Like metal get between the cap and side of the case. Not sure how or why and not sure I care. But replacing with a Teague cap cost is higher than the XR ribbed cap. You add to the cost when you add the two bearings. The XR cap comes with those bearings and a steel tower. The machining on both caps is very good. Teague may be better in that area than the XR, but I dont find huge descrepencies on either cap. I feel the XR cap is as strong if not stronger than the Teague.
I use the XR cap because I can get it faster, and cheaper and I like the idea of the steel tower.. So both caps are good!! Just I perfer the XR ribbed. By the way we lifted a Teaque top cap on that Hustler this summer and I switched to XR top caps with studs. If the Teague had studs, it may not have lifted. Not sure, I got it after the gear set had already broken..

Dick

What year XR cap will fit a 1999
B1 drive.

Ken,
the cap I am refering to is PN# 865507A04. But it is not a direct replacement. The depth of the recess where the race shim sits is different than a stock B1 or old style XR cap. You also need to be using the new style X gears. (Used in the OM ser # drives) Sorry I forgot to mention that. When I upgrade a drive to the new style gears, I recommend a new steel tower in the upper case and the top cap. Then I set up the lash on the gears and use what ever shims are needed to accomplish that.
But the tower in the XR cap is too short for the old style gears. In that case you might need to go to a Teague or some other brand of cap.

Hope this helps.

Dick

What about a Max Worx cap. It seems to be the strongest one I seen. I've had a XR, Teague, and Max Worx caps all side by side and you cant copaire any of them to the Max Worx.

http://www.maxmachineworx.com/upperTopCap.htm

I had a customer send me two Max caps and I had to have them remachined because the race surface was not flat. After taking off a couple thousanths, the distance was too great, so I had to install shims behind the tower to get proper position.
Not to say that they are a bad cap, but I should not had to remachined them. They also use a 7/16" studs to mount the cap. That makes it stronger, but it all so makes the upper case thinner (in an area that is already thin) where the holes are for the top cap studs. Once you drill them to that size you can't go back. What I did with this customer's drive was to have the studs rethreaded for 3/8" on that end. I have never lifted a top cap held on with 3/8" studs.
Just my .02, and experience with two of their caps.

Dick

We have very good luck with these from Billet Marine.

http://www.billetmarine.com/Our%20Products.htm