Took the boat out this weekend and running across the lake and its like it went into nuetral no forward gear but it will go into reverse. I can hear a noise in the top of the drive like knocking or something when i put in forward. But when put into reverse works perfect. Please help and ideas. Thanks in advance. I really feel i have stripped out the forward gear or broke the forward gear or something.

Probably broke the floor out of the forward gear. What year is the drive?

its a 1998 model. the gear ratio on the side is saying 18R not sure what that means.

I have an old style brave one drive like from 1989 it dont have the oil resivore on it like the bravo three does but can I put the whole lower unit on it for now till I get the bravo three fixed or bad Idea?? And as far as I have researched so for it seems like this is a costly repair. Is there anyway to do this alot cheaper like just replacing the one gear thats bad and not all of it? And is this something that can be done without some special tools? I very mechanically inclined and would like to do myself. Thanks again for the help.

Swan,
to put the older upper on the B3 lower you need to check for the oil hole in the island that is in the water passage. It will be there on the lower, but it may not be on the upper. It should be plugged to make sure water does not enter the lower unit.
The upper gear can be replaced if you can find one. And yes it does take some special tools to get the gear stack out. Mainly a retainer nut wrench, it looks like a daisy.
Hope that helps.
Dick

Thank you sir so much. That helps and ill see if I can take it apart and see if I can find that top gear. If anyone thinks they might have a spare gear please let me know and I did check the ratio and its saying 1.8 I believe its kinda hard to see. Again thanks for the help as always.