Upper gears on a Bravo one X drive..
 

I have a 2006 25' Baja Outalw with the 496HO and a Bravo one X sterndrive. The motor has about 225 hours on it. I took the boat out yesterday and heard a grinding sound. I tried to get the boat back to the landing but before I could the boat broke completly. I have taken the drive off and opened up the top part to find a bunch of metal and the gears appear to have no teeth left. I pretty sure its the upper gears that are gone. Does anyone have any info on the best way to fix this or something else that it might be? Any help you can provide will greatly apprecaited. Here are the pictures I took with the top off. Thanks in advance. DJ
http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o...boatmotor2.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...boatmotor2.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...boatmotor1.jpg

http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o...boatmotor1.jpg

Pull the back cover off and get a better look at the gears. Your only looking at the top of the bearing but it doesn't look good. That's a Bravo gear for ya. The whole drive, at least the upper needs to be torn down and all parts inspected for damage from the broken debris. The lower at a minimum needs to be flushed to get the metal shavings out. If your LUCKY it didn't tear up the shaft or the pinion gear. If your VERY lucky it didn't do damage to the tower. I'm not sure if the "X" has a steel tower or not but even if it does I don't think its replacable without changing the whole upper case. Good Luck, I've popped more than a few and can't wait to get away from the Bravo gear sets.

The Bravo 1x does have a steel tower. The helical cut gears generally survive behind stock power. Depending on how it is driven, the teeth usually only break by applying to much torque. But there can be a number of other reasons this one failed.
Time for a rebuild.. sorry for your loss. :(

I have some excellent almost new 1:50 gears if you need them, I have done gear ratio changes for people who buy their boats in Sacramento and live in Tahoe, the gears look new.
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I had the same with mine, started making noise and got worse as the metal jamed the gears.My tower is distorted and the drives are the older B1. I have to check to see how the lower is with the metal getting down there.I will be looking for a newer drive now.