What would cause this?
 

Went out for a 4 hr run and everything ran perfect, then while waiting for the dock to open up (45 min) I suddenly lost all power to one of my drives.:(
When I pulled it out of the water and the entire main shaft, bearings, bearing retainer, and prop is missing. Also the lower gears are messed up.
I have had this boat on the water 3 times since I purchased it and not had a problem.

The previous owner had stated that he recently rebuilt the drives just before the purchase.

They are TRS drives behind 502 EFI's
32' Chris Craft

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/395/img0578v.jpg

Thanks in advance

This is my guess......The carrier retaining ring threads were worn out(or corrosion cracked) and there was never proper torque or holding power with ring anymore. A little stress and the guts are gone. There was a cheap trs drive on ft.myers craigslist a coulpe of days ago..

Whoever rebuilt them didnt tighten spanner nut correctly or didnt bend the locktab on it. When you put it in reverse it just backed out. Might try getting a mask and try looking for parts, lot of $ on the bottom!

I'd be nervous about the other drive :party-smiley-004:

All varry good point's of info on what would cause this, But good call on this one. [X 2] Did the owener do the rebuild him self or did a shop do this? For starters grab the other prop or shaft if prop is off on the other drive and try to wiggle it and move it in or out too see if it is loose at all. Then you might need to remove the prop, And look at the "lock tab washer" to see if one of the tabs are bent over to help hold it in place. You could Look for the TRS gear housing in this link, And open it up and look at number 28 and 29 for a better idea of what should be their to help hold this in if you want to.http://www.mercruiserparts.com/selec...?doc_nbr=76022 Good luck with it.

Here's a link to a Merc. TRS service manual.

http://www-alt.mercurymarine.com/mne...l/05/cover.pdf

Thanks everyone,
I suspected that the locking nuts may have had some issue, whether not being tight enough (local shop said 200 ft lbs) or the tabs not fully engaged.

Is their anything else that could have caused this?

The reason I ask is because to replace the lower is costing me over $5k and I was going to request some reimbursement from the previous owner.
Would that be out of line?

And yes I am planning on trying to find the missing parts but they fell out in the delta, about 20' deep of strong current, muddy water, so I might be waisting my time.
Diving is not an option in that current.
Maybe a big magnet or something.

Buy a used drive. It will be cheaper then fixing the lower unit. Offshore performance specialties in ft. myers has trs parts. If you look at the other drive there may be a corrosion crack in the area where the skeg meets the carrier, it's a common problem if the drives were in salt. Off the parts in the lake you might find your prop, the rest of it is problbly damaged.

Inspect the case especially where the threads are for the retainer.If all is good then the tabs had to have not been bent over.Actually there should be 3 or 4 tabs bent over.It may have even been accidently left off.The retainer is only tightened enough to give the correct bearing preload.No way it could have been tightened to 200 lbs., if that is what you were talking about.I noticed it's a left hand drive.If the case is good you should be able to get that fixed for more like 2K.About $1500 parts and $300 labor.Lot of those parts they have on ebay right now.

Complete rebuilt TRS left hand drive on ebay now for $1250.
9 days remaining!!