I was wondering if there were a batch of gears that were bad or something? I know a guy that is on his 3rd set in 2 years. He said he gets about 25-30 hours out of them with about 650hp.
I think he has a heavy hand, but then again, 3 sets!?!

Jason,
are you talking uppers or lowers?

Uppers, reverse gear of all things.

That sounds wierd to me. Bad shimming or bearings?!

Case has bent tower ????

They are not "junk", 650HP is too much for that gearset always has been. They are not rated for that much power. I always thought 500HP would have been a good place to stop frankly. Sure, John Q Public says "I,ve been running 800HP for years on the same set with no trouble blah,blah. I've seen PLENTY of them break at that level. They were not designed for that abuse. You can "make them last" but you'd be better off upgrading them if you don't want to have to baby them. Would you complain if your one ton truck broke with two tons in it? Sure you could get away with it for a while but, come on be fair. I wouldn't blame it on the boat owner either, the gears just weren't designed for that. Not looking to start a fire but this an old tired subject.

I see you are from Lake George,NY Clustergear, say hello to Nicki Cutro for me.

Sounds like he is shifting F-R/R-F too quickly. That will do it. Does he slam directly from forward to reverse? You really need to pause at neutral to allow the prop to come to a rest, and the internals to come to a rest.

That said; 650HP is a lot for a stock XR, but the tq. number is more important.

I've had my fair share of problems with them.

Had a couple of gears where the teeth material just chunked out.

Had 1 break a tooth off and junk the whole upper out.

Had another gear crack and shear the cone off of the
gear.

I'm not impressed with them.

I am soon to be a member of the Bravo Xr Club. I was running about 600HP very tame on Bravo's and was not having great luck with the drives lasting. I think I had a combo of 15 year old drives rebuilt many times in the same cases and probably had multiple weaknesses. So I upgraded to XR's for long lasting peace of mind. Well I have read many threads on the Xr's and the gear sets wearing and breaking. My peace of mind is leaving me before I even put the boat in the water. What the heck is going on with XR's are these gear sets really that bad. Should I be as concerned as I am.???
What torque numbers are in line with keeping XR's together.\
I want to have a problem free summer.!!!!! Any more thoughts are appreciated.

All my problems have been behind a set of 575's
.....and both drives have had issues.

All I can say is to watch for junk on the magnets,
but that's not 100% either.