BMAX parts and help
 

Seeing if anyone has a info on some used BMAX drives or parts. I keep breaking mine and need the spares. Thanks

theres a drive in this section for sale


Whats breaking?

I have broke shafts, gears and have had a clutch stick. I just dont know what is going wrong. I m gentle on the drives, i dont hammer them, they are behind 500 EFIs, I just cant figure them out. Maybe the 1.36 gear ratio is hurting them or just the darn size of the boat. I keep the fluids changed and check them frequently. Im just confused

Depends on how old,first ones, poker run, or have ya replaced some parts with the new ht's, they have a new design vert shaft that had a bigger radius on the vert shaft,Ive been running them 3 years ,the lower gears are stock merc,thats your weak link about every 75-100hours ,I haven't hurt a prop shaft ever,I had sent the drives back this winter for a ck out, In August one was producing metal,I sent Dean a oil sample that looked like it had antiseeze in the oil:(he said keep running it, Then I get to buy new gears :mad:He wouldnt,couldnt tell me WHY the failed,those upper gears are bad$$$$

They are poker run drives. I cant tell you the whole history of them because they were on the boat when i bought it. I do know that the stbd drive has all new HT gears$$$$$:angry-smiley-038:and a clutch. I just broke a set of lowers in the port drive on saturday. Guess the beatings will continue till my moral improves..... :cool-smiley-027:

what year are your drives, are they the big input shafts or the smaller ones

2002 model drives, and small input shaft

You might see if he would let ya trade in and get the HT's.Thats what I did,Thats another story:mouse:

As far as Iv seen the HP only gets to the gears,The set up height on the upper gears is crital,upper bearing went out once first day of a poker run,lost reverse because it change the Clarence .015,prob lucky I it did it instead of blowing it up. Frank (Panther) has had upper gear go out ,blew up,needed all new upper.

Saw One broken prop shaft on a poker run, but the pictures on the 43 Nortech were of him out of the water and it was up there so long it didn't have any water dripping off it:rolleyes:

I except parts failure from running them hard,HP etc.we use to say thats just racing,it happens. But when they tell ya that the upper gears "do not fail" and I'm under their HP and TQ rating,They cant tell me why it failed,Id feel better being told I was at fault.That You abused it,ran the shet out of it .Now I'm scared of it,That was unexpected $$$

On the BT is it just the center drive?

It was the upper gear set on the stbd side first. now its a lower gear set on the port. Twin engine setup not trips.( I wish it was though):cool: 500efi motors, i always us tabs as its 1.36 ratio, and 2inch shorties make it kinda sluggish to get on plain. Brad Schonewald and Bob Jenkins have both told me to stay with the drives but change ratio to 1.5 and they believe that will help.

How heavy is the boat? I am two years at over 700 HP and 727 TQ with no problems or signs of wear. they are HT's and i only weigh 4200lb dry. The weight may be a contributing factor.

12000 dry.

Your prob running a 24p 4 blade? What speed?

Thats allot of stress on just 2 drives in that boat, Do they still make them with 2 bravos? Did the upper gear break or started wearing making metal?

Yours is a 1.30, I would think the 1.50 would help on the TQ multiples,I seem to remember Dean saying the 1.50 was weaker,Id ask him to make sure.

Did the shorties help?

boats
12k
gas 1700 aroundabout
gear/beer 2-300
girls 110,one guy 180
14k mim-15k loaded?
wet


Generaly the sticking in gear slow/hard to go into gear is the shift ring on the gears [bronze looking]if not installed at a angle, worn flat, the ring is higher on one end making a ramp, the shift fork engages it take the clutch/gear and the ramp throws it up or down,making it ingage the clutch.Also the set up/staked height of the gear package being to short or long will affect the shifting, I hope I said this right:eek::drink:

Rob

Wow, right on the money for prop size. 70-72 WOT and from all the figures i have done, you are about spot on for weight also. The reason for the sbd gear set was that the clutch was welded into the gear. RnRed that gear set and problems seem to have disappeared. Then this little deal happened. Maybe its just working out the kinks before we get to far into summer. Just never had these problems with bravos and XRs but they were behind fountains and 500hp power.

For what it's worth, I've seen the clutch get welded into the gears on regular bravo's. It can/will happen from shifting into gear at too high rpms and can also happen from jumping waves... It's rare but it can happen. Hopefully with your gearset fixed your problems will be behind you. fingers crossed!

The end of last season I blew an HT upper that had about 125 hrs on it with 830 hp/tq in my 36' Apache (10,500 lbs dry). The gear blew a few teeth and split the upper case in half. :eek: Cost me about $6K for the upper. :(

Season before that with 100 hrs since new I broke a vertical shaft coupler due to the lower vertical shaft bearing being worn. Dean fixed it and thew in new lower gearsets under warranty, even though I was a few months out of warranty, with no questions asked because I told him a few months earlier the one drive had some metal on the magnet.

I've learned that up-keep and maintenance on these drives are imperative and I'm now replacing all the bearings in the upper/lower every year. How many hours on the drives? It sounds like they might be a little tired and in need of a re-fresh.

Overall I'm much happier with the BMax than I was with the IMCO Bravo's, which decided to check out within 20 hours... :mad::drink:

Dang All This Talk About These Makes Me Scared To Use Them On My Fountain.

Copared to what? I still think it is the best Bravo bolt on available.

If I recall they are rated to 14000lbs. That loaded with fuel, fluids, gear and friends could put you over the threshold and be a partial cause of your problems.

I honestly think they are a great drive, i just need to get in them and make sure they are tight and running smooth. If i had the cash though, the boat would be on NXTs with a little bigger power. I spoke with the owner of Black Thunder and he told me that the new boats with NXTs are a night and day difference.:ernaehrung004: Maybe someday i can have one.....lol

konrad ace bravo replacement or there are twin konrad 540 deals for 15,000 everyonce in a while but you would have to buy boxes for trannys or move the motors 10''. some of my friends are using max machine worx drives with 700 to 850hp, but two drives rated for 800hp is the way to go and you get a deal on the refirn ones that were in the swap for 15,000 or the ace package that elite marine has for about the same price. I can't wait for mine to be done with the 1050hp smooth shifting:ernaehrung004:. and then you got that NEW x drive if they figure out you need to sell them at 15,000 instead of 25,000. thats to high for just a drive. no box no steering no transom no tranny either at least konrad and arneson give you all that for about the same money.

I'm not a big fan of IMCO due to the way they treated me when I had problems but what's the feedback on this SCX drive?

I looks like they took the same idea (bigger gears) as the BMax , took it one step further with the lower unit and built their own version.

Yes they did...

All 7 bolts came out ? or did the housing break?

Actually it happends all the time with the B-MAX's.

a buddy just lost his lower in Marathon last week during a race,,,,the nuts just vibrate off and then its a free fall for the lower ?! :eek:

The studs or the upper housing threads striped?
I got one back once and he left of the thin washers off,the nuts dug into the case,I went to put the washers on and one stud was totally striped, so that meant who ever put it together knew is was striped and probably said Fk em.

sounds like something pushed it off? Panther had one push the top cap off.Ya got the back cover off, look in there and pray

Did he rebuild the top?
Rob

Post pics when you get it back.

Guys, i appreciate all the help. Dean is "supposed" to call me back today and figure out what he is going to do about this. I personally put the lower on and can promise you all that the studs werent stripped. Also, 20 hrs ago, i had the upper and lower rebuilt on the other side and put it together and its still running fine. Hopefully there is no dammage in the upper also in this drive. What causes BMAXs to do these things. I'm considering just making this a #5 boat and being done with all the bravo style problems. Any thoughts....

For whatever it's worth I've heard and seen this happen on the Mercury Bravo ITS drives.... It happened to a friend in a poker run...no warning etc...just blew off the back of the boat.:eek:

After speaking with Dean at the Bravo Shop, He told me that the locks on the upper gear had came loose magically and pushed the lower off the upper drive case. We are in the process of working something out because I dont buy the "MAGICAL" BS line. Ill keep everyone posted as to what happens. Also, Im going diving next week with a group to see if we can locate the lower and my 15 minute old prop that was on it:coolcowboy:

So the lock c-locks on the clutch shaft came out and shot the clutch shaft down and pushed the lower off the drive?????

only way I could see that happening is from loose tolerances in the clutch pack in the upper or the clutch shaft ball bearing cluster bloke, otherwise you have to compress the upper gears quite a bit to get the clips loose.

that f'ing sucks!! Let use know how you make out with replacement.

Big bird did it,wait till the cookie monster eats it:bigbird::bigbird:


That cookie monster is a sneaky little bastard:eek::boat:

the other day on sesame street, everything the cookie monster touched turned into a cookie.... it really pissed off big bird and the rest of the gang!:grinser010::drink:

But miss piggy gave cermet the flew

I hope Tiffy was fine togh !:eek:

Bro,,,thats the muppet show !!!

Stay with 1 thing at a time .:evilb::grinser010:

Carefull now Oscar will put your shet in the trash like my upper gears:party-smiley-004:


hey hey were still talking about drives

LOL,,,,what happend to your upper gears ?????

Did cockie monster eat them too ?????:eek::grinser010:

Damn boating aint fun these days,,,steel fish eat the blades on props and cockie monster eat the gears..................he he

Well its a long story,but basically Mr Rogers made them soft:eek::gfight:

Ok, Mr Rogers ,then just be easy on the new ones .:eureka:;)