Advise on Bravo 1 to Bravo 1X upgrade
 

I have a 2000 Baja 302 with stock 385hp 454's. I blew up my first Bravo 1 upper two years ago and replaced it with a used Bravo 1X that I bought from Shogren. Happy with the performance of that drive, but my second stock Bravo 1 upper let go last season. I can't seem to find a reasonably priced previous gen Bravo 1X, so I am considering having one of my damaged Bravo 1's rebuilt to Bravo 1X spec's. I live in Chicago and boat on Lake Michigan. I have an estimate from AirMarine to replace gears, etc. but they won't put the steel bearing tower into the case. I've heard good things about All American Drive Service out of Bronson, MI, whose upgrade package includes installing the steel bearing tower. Anybody have an opinion on their work? Is there anyone else "locally" I should be speaking to??? BTW, if I ever chose to upgrade engine power, I would never exceed 450 hp. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Mike

PM sent.

I guess I should have mentioned, my drives are 1.50's and the older-style upper.

:drink:

call Dick Tryce aka Mr Gadets on here he is the bravo drive man (616-403-1006) he is in MI

Yes call Dick, great guy!

+1 just had mine done by DICK ,geat guy he done the steel tower,and a stronger top cap plus some other stuff , Very helpfull guy. paul from England

+2, most helpful guy I've ever spoken to!!

Cool, thanks for the advise everybody!

PM sent. I have a spare X drive with less than 30 hours on it.

Mike,
I can say with 100% confidence that Dick ( Mr Gadgets ) would be the best man to rebuild/upgrade your drive. I have been a personal friend of his for quite some time. He has the experience and ability to handle the job. To my knowledge, there is nobidy out there who takes the time and effort to make 100& certain that the drives he builds are as good as they can be. He checks everything. Even things I you would never think of checking.
To tell you what kind of man he is, several years ago, he took the time to walk me through my first drive rebuild. Since then, he has helped me on numerous occasions on other rebuilds I have done.