Saw some fluid coming from the top cap on my XR drive while on the trailer. I pulled the cap and it was busted. pretty clean break and almost no debris. Oil drained clean with no shavings or other material. Question is:

Can I just replace the cap and top bearing, poor some fluid through it to flush it out, and bolt it back together or should I pull the drive and have it dissasembled and inspected.

Thanks

I'll have to post the pics later. My internet is running too slow to get them uploaded right now...

If drive fluid got out.....water likely got in. Right now you need a top cap and a tear-down/re-assembly and likely no other parts......$500-600 bucks. If something else is wrong and you simply put on another top cap you could destroy the entire drive AND have to come home on one engine......I know which one I would do!!!!

Top cap's do not break just because !! My bet would be that you broke a tooth off a gear which in turn broke the cap. This is standard practice for xr drives.

I agree with the tear down. Which cap did you have on the drive? If it was the thin Merc cap, now is your chanve to upgrade to a good cap. I would recommend, either the later model XR ribbed cap or Teagues billet cap. If you dont want to upgrade, I have a couple of thin Merc caps I can sell you for a reasonable price.

Kieffer,
Was this on the LH drive? Is the tower snapped off the cap, if the cap was just pushed up.. then I would pull the back can and look for a broken tooth on the upper gear if it was the LH. The caps dont break without being forced.. Check into it deeper. And definetly put a good cap on.. But it has to be setup for the new cap..
Hope this helps.
Dick

It was the starboard drive (standard rotation) which has me even more worried. I'm pulling the drive tonight and dropping it off to have it gone through. I've been looking at some aftermarket caps. For the price of the stock one you could go aftermarket. Only difference is I would have to buy another one for the port drive.

I'm actually relieved that I discovered it before launching. It would have sucked to blow up the drive....

The tower did snap off. I'll get some photos up today.

Edit:

Here are a couple shots. You can see where a piece bounced around and chewed up the top a little. When you look down in the drive everything other than the thrust bearing top (big washer on top of the bearing) looks really good. I'm hoping the gears are okay.....

http://kieffer4.smugmug.com/Hobbies/...10834965_z9EQi

#20 shows some light damage. Everything below that point looks reall good. Everything above it is toast. Won't know for sure until it comes apart though...

http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show_...FXZ%2DDrive%29

IMO this is the result of something else breaking, not the other way around.

Kieffer,
I believe this is a classic case of driving your boat too slowly. Like a gramma bringing her buick in every 6 months to have the spark plugs changed due to excessive carbon buildup.