Well I have been listening for the tell tale sounds of a drive going and didn't hear a thing. I was cruising along at 70 and my wife gave me the wave to pour on the coals so I did, almost hit 80 and the boat died. My wife looked at me and said, "why did you do that". I said I didn't, the drive died, out in the middle of Lake Huron with nobody around except for a tug pulling a barge. I called Boat US and they never called back, so I called 911 and they sent out a tow company. Cost me $625 to get towed 4 miles back to the harbor. Now I need to pull the drive apart and fix it. Any recommendations on where to get detailed information on lash and shims?

every time ive blown a drive there is a massive hole in the bottom gearcase where the gear exploded

Sounds just like mine. No blown case or metal in the oil. The foward gear separated from the shift collar that holds it in gear. Several people tell me this happens because Mercury welds this on the gear. Mr Gagets on here is great source of information.

The nut backed off on the input shaft gear. . . . . . . . .

Mine went BANG when the case broke, then it made the funky noises like yours.

Zero signs, change the oil every 20-25 hrs since I owned it.

Guess we joined the "club". This winter I am going to have the starboard drive gone thru and buy a back up drive. Don't need the down time or headaches in such a short season on Lake Erie

Your more knowledgeable than I when it comes to drive internals.

ThisisLivin,

If your upper case is broken like ours then buy a new, old style, upper from Victory Marine. They take them out of the box and hard shim the input shaft bearings.

Fortunately the case is intact, I am assuming the upper gears are toast as the oil came out a grey metallic color. I have decided to send the drive to All American to have George rebuild it, they get $6500 and I get a drive beefed up to handle 700hp and a 24 month warranty. The parts alone from MAX were more than that and a stock rebuild won't hold up anyway. I will also be upgrading my tow package to unlimited.

Have you looked at sending it to Teague?