Bravo 1 Question?
 

Hey guys,
I just got my Bravo 1 drives back on boat, and port drive remote resevoir is foaming up and level rises?
Am I getting water in somewhere?
Ran it for a bit and level went back down, but looks foamy.
Help please,

That's a new one on me!! I have never seen one foam up. When the foam settles, does it look milky? Drain some from the lower plug and take a look. If there it doesnt look like good oil.. Then drain it in a pan.. you will see the water if that is the problem.
If there is no water or evidence of it.. I would pressure/vaccum test the drive, it might have a leak.

Others will chime in.. maybe someone has seen it, I have not..
Hope this helps.

Dick

I've seen one foam up before and it was because water was getting into the drive.

I kind of thought it was water, but I drained it and didn't really notice water in pan. Wouldnt it be pretty obvious?

It should be obvious! Any water in the oil and it should be milky.. or the water should seperate out and flow out first. What kind of drive oil using and what did it look like when u drained it.. same color as when it went in?

Using Merc High Perf. gear lube. Did not notice any water seperation or milky fluid. Yes, same color, looked like it was just filled. I cleaned out resovoir with kerosene from parts wash tank when I blew drive out. I wonder if maybe some residue left in resovoir causing it to foam?

this may sound like an obviuos one but did you pump the lube in from the bottom plug or just pour it in the resovoir ?

I would think the kerosene would have had to get into the drive and be mixed up by the gears.. to have that as the cause. But it is possible. I have flushed drives with Mineral spirits before and then let them drain good.. poured some drive oil in from the top and let it drain.. If kerosene is in there, and causing it.. which I doubt.. then the mineral spirits should flush it..

You should be able to see moisture in the oil, if it is present.

Like I say, I have not seen this one before. I would pressure and vaccum test, see if that reveals anything.

I filled it twice, from bottom plug up.
Just drained again, and no water that I can see.
Had a very slight amount of foam in pan, but very little.
Thank you,
Confused !

water in drive.
 

if you are in doubt about water in the oil you can use a paste that guys use in the h/vac industry to locate water in oils and fuel.smeer alitte on a dry screw-driver and sloch it in the oil.if it turns purple you have water in the oil.hope this helps.

Here's another twist , mine was foaming and filling up ,do to a drive overheating. The oil was expanding threw the c.v. back into the bottle. Merc. high per. oil /w around ten hours on it. When I drained the drive,. the oil it was black with alot of brass looking particals .

Could it be getting hot?
Lower drives are new Imcos, and they feel pretty tight.
Just drained oil, looks new.

P.S. Thank you bcfountain, I didn't know about paste.
Might have to give it a try :)

Hey guys, could C V be bad ?

What's c v?

DMAX mentioned it,
I'm assuming its a little check valve in uppercase?
I think thats what that is?
In oil passage where upper joins to
drive shaft housing.
Someone enlighten me here?

That check valve cant get to the bottle. At least I dont see how it could. If heat is an issue, it shows up in several places. Are you running a shower? Do you see white on the sides of the upper? If you run it long enough, hot, the oil does turn black.
The lowers should start to loosen up after about 10hrs of running. Spin the props and see if they move freely? After about 20hrs they should spin without too much force.
Brass particles would indicate misadjusted shift linkage, holding the shift fork against the brass rings.. but your not seeing that.
If it isnt water, I would look at temps next. A tight drive would cause excess heat, for sure. One of the preloads on the tapered bearings could be too tight?. Keep with the info.. we'll figure this out..

Dick

Im assuming preload is correct,
Lowers are new from Imco. They both feel exactly the same, but are fairly tight,(I'm also comparing them to my old Bravo's that had some time on them)
Yes, I'm running drive shower, and no other signs of heat or brass particles.
Also I didn't run them very long.

Approximately how many hours?

H-O-T, had one do this and the guy puked the upper gears after 15 hours.Somone had put a newer style x gear set in a older upper and put the .060 series shims instead of the .050 series shims.A tooth broke,then it wiped out the race tower.Did you get the entire lower from Imco or did you get an empty lower w/ vertical and assemble it?

Had a couple on my old 32 Velocity that did a similiar deal. Brand new uppers, one lasted 2-3 hours and chit, when we pulled the back cap to take a look the Merc lube was like whipped cream, failure was heat related and took out the tower, gears, cone clutch, and the case. Replaced that one, back in the water and another hour or so the other one went, same deal with the lube and internals. Have never run the Merc lube in a drive since, I broke more drives after these, but never saw the whipped cream deal again, just the broken parts.

Ran them about two hrs total

No, I bought complete lowers from Imco,
They might even be for sale, not working out to well on my boat. (Yes, another issue)
Went to shortys, and my boat does not like them at all!
I think I'm going back to stock lowers.