Merc #6 Drive Failure Factory Problem
 

This past weekend I was running a SV43 Outerlimits 1075s w/#6s. The drives have 23 hrs used since new. At 95 mph the lower end of one drive let go. Expert investigation shows the front nut on the lower assembly was loose with little evidence of loctite being applied correctly from the factory. Brad Halpen (Merc field rep) identified this condition in Mercury some time ago. The shaft was not properly prepared of the coating from the shaft supplier prior to applying loctite at Mercury.

This is a serious production problem with this drive.

very confusing post,i don,t understand what you are saying.:party-smiley-004:

What he is saying is that merc has a major quality control problem in there drives !!! Sorry to hear about your issue with the new boat Gary. Hopefully merc will take care of it for you . Like they should . Jeff

I called Mercury today and they had no clue of the problem (or at least that's how they acted). They said the drives and motor package is only covered under warranty for 3-months, regardless of how many hours. So according to Mercury they will not acknowledge the problem or cover, I'm SOL.

This is CLEARLY a factory assembly problem! The loctite applied at the factory to keep the nut from spinning off inside the lower drive does not work because the shaft threads have residue from their supplier inhibiting the effectiveness of the factory applied loctite. I have top notch experts including a Merc engineer (now retired) that developed this drive who concur this is indeed the root cause of failure. In addition, this has been reported as a problem by the Merc field rep but Mercury will not acknowledge the problem. I'm not the first person to blow a drive because of this reason. In fact, there are numerous people but up till now they didn't understand the root cause. I caution everyone who has Merc #6 drives this may happen to you. Oh by the way, after the drive blew it also took out my tranny. I'm having my other drive pulled and inspected to make sure the nut is tight and loctite is applied correctly.

Running new drives at 3,000 rpm with 23 hrs on them that blow up is just not right. As you can imagine I am very dissatisfied with Mercury. If Mercury was a company committed to customer satisfaction they would do a recall, but apparently they are not.

They already got your money and guess what, they're gonna get some more. Yep, total BS especially with a failure not attributed to abuse/wear, but until they have more competition that's what they can do.

I had 2 XR's with Ser#......23 and......24. The .....23 blew. On inspection it had XZ gears in it. I inspected the ....24. It had XR gears in it. I called Merc and they said, "that's just the way it is". Guess what, I bought IMCO's SC's full of they're parts. Now I have the SCX's with not much for Merc parts if any at all. Of course that puts me at the mercy of IMCO. lol

The mercy? Have you seen the round cap on top of a SC? I came back from a trip and one was missing. No mercy, I had to buy one. It now has a safety wire holding it on. Of course the Merc gears still broke so now I'm with the SCX. Fingers crossed. The new SCX's have the same cap, so I added the safety wire.

I know that if I were you...I would write a letter to Fred Kiekhaefer and explain this in detail. Document everything that you can. Usually the man at the top will address a problem like this with an acceptable remedy for the customer...you. By pass all of the middle men and go straight to the top.

If you get nothing...air it out on OSO and let the court of public opinion have the final word.

Mercury is no longer the only game in town and guys like yourself do have a choice in the future. I am sure that Ilmor would love to have your business.

Good luck with this.

Weismann drives

Merc suks- I hope they fall hard someday soon. :mad:

Sorry to hear your problems! Sounds like its something Mercury should cover.

I bet its been happening for a while but most of the people who can afford a setup like you, do not wrench on their own boat, nor pay attention to who ever is wrenching, just pay the bill and keep on boating.

Blown bravos are common complaint on OSO and a few have said quotes like "#6's break also, people just don't talk about it".

Glad you spoke up!

I am so glad I am getting my boat converted to Arneson Surface Drives... Good Luck!