I have a drive that howls when put in gear. drained gear oil,no metal filings on maganets or in oil? Any suggestion or a estimate on what it would cost to fix?

Are you positive its only when in gear? Could be the gimbal bearing going bad.

Yes , I can rev the motor up , turn drive from side to side drive up or down no noise till you put it in gear.

XR gears do make a whinning noise. If there is no metal on the magnets, I would just keep an eye on them. Could be the normal noise they make.

Dick

Had my local shop take a look at it ,upper gears are shot. Some pretty good pitting with some hair line cracks.

Sorry to hear the bad news.. but it is common on the XR gears to pit and die an early death!

02s so not to bad only a matter of time 340hrs on them

That is good life out of an XR. But don't expect to see another 340 out of the new gears. They were made with quality back in the day, not any more, I am sorry to say. Just the way it works when you lowest bidder gets the contract, I guess.

Yes you can tell just by looking at the new ones