Had my engine and drive removed to replace engine coupler,got the boat back and ran one day and broke the gears in the upper drive. The guy who did the work check it out and said they just went bad. He never took the drive apart,just R&R. Could he had screwed up putting the drive back on and caused the problem??? Thanks for your input on this problem!!

i dont think so,how many hours were on the drive,and what is the hp of the engine?

There is 650 HRS on the drive and motor. It has a 502 MAG. W/415 horse all stock.

With that many hours, it was just a matter of time, surprised it lasted that long. Drive gears are a wear item.

Welcome to the club...

even if you change the lube often,the b1 gears do loose their strength over time,id say you got your money,s worth with 650 hrs.

With out taking the drive apart how do you know you got all the metal out of it, I would hate to have to redo the drive because metal was left in there and the bearings failed?

I just broke the gears in my upper 2 weeks ago and after inspection I had metal in the lower also. I had to redo the upper and lower.

What usually happens is the preload on the pinion bearings goes away.. The pinion gear will walk sideways as it is trying to turn the driven gear. That much movement in the gear setup will cause stress on the teeth and boom. I fresh set of bearings and setup at about 450-500hrs and they can go farther, but at 650hrs, it doesnt owe you anything.. Just the price of boating.
Like they said, welcome to the club!!

Dick

I never had any problems w/the drive before this,and it just didn't seem right, so i had to ask the question. The price they gave me to rebuild,$2500.00,that's half of a new one. So i said screw it ,not taking any chances,bought a brand new MERC complete.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR INPUT1

Unfortunately, you wont get 650 hours out of that new B-1. Not with the way Merc gears have been lately..