What about using a exact fit tab washer behind the nut. Pull the tabs down to lock against the nut after proper torque. Wonder if stage eight would have anything that works for that app. No offense, I would rather use a chisel to get a nut off rather than notch hitting to keep in place. I would think you might be loosing some integrity of the nut itself.

I had kicked around a lot of ideas on fixing this. An old auto wheel brg style lock washer would work but you would have to machine a slot or flat edge on the shaft. That would not be easy and might compromise the strength of the shaft. My mechanic, who posts on here and I trust very much has had success with the red loctite and a few extra crimps around the nyloc. I like the idea of shimming it to proper pre-load so that the nut can be tightened down properly. The nut on mine had backed off about 1/8 inch and could almost be turned with your fingers.

Dick,
Not trying to hijack the thread, I have a upper gear cut apart and the cut polished and always wondered if one would ever let go there at the weld. How many inertia welds have you ever seen let go ? Just curious.
I build a lot of SV and SVL, P3 and 4 drives and think mine don't see the load some of yours might. Orrr I'm just plain lucky
Thanks in advance.
WB

WB,
I have seen a couple of clean breaks, all the way around. Then some break half way around and splits the ring gear into multiple pieces. I have seen more "one tooth snapped off at the root" than the weld failing.
I recently removed the inner bearing on a gear to replace it, I attempted to pick up the gear and ended up with only the hub. The bearing inside was holding the gear together. Gotta love it.
The SCX doesn't have that problem.. :)

Thank God the SCX doesn't have that problem , just converted from SC to SCX , the SC had all XR stuff in it .

Dick
Thanks for the info. I guess the race drives I build for these offshore classes aren't heavy enough to stress the welds or I'd seen one by now. Any chance there were just a bad batch of sets sent out?
WB

I think every 4th or 5th one is a bad one. You just don't know, from snapping teeth to ring gears breaking loose. I put two SC's together last winter and they lasted all season for a guy. He had fun with it, the way you are suppose to. Others aren't so lucky. But I never saw these two problems before 2006. I have to believe Merc changed suppliers and the new generation doesn't know how to forge them like the old duffers did..
Not too many ring gear failures, more teeth snapping at the root than ring gear problems.
Dick