I picked up a Baja Islander 272 with over 600 hours on the drive and found some water in the gear case and is a mofo to shift, as in grown men need to slam the lever to get it to engage. I've adjusted and lubed the cables with no improvement so at the very least the drive has to come off to replace the lower shift cable.

From what I've learned they improved the Bravos at around this year, so is it worth it to find a newer unit, or rebuild the one I have? I'm running a 502/502hp Eagle motet with no current ambitions of going bigger, but I want a drive that I can use for the next ten years with no worries.

I am finding some oil in the bilge and the drive oil in the reservoir is dropping. I'm not seeing any obvious leaks but is it possible to be leaking back in from somewhere obvious that I can't see?


Edit: After some searching it looks like it may be the pinion seal leaking through the bellows. I need to change the trim sensors and cable anyways so that baby is coming off. Is it a big deal to change the u-joints? I've read different levels of complications on the matter.

They don't look very difficult to change.

U joints are no big deal, and the lower shift cable may be fine , sometimes the hard shifting is from the old style cone clutch or shift cam.

It is a 1996, and I don't think they went to the newer gears/clutches until 2000. I'm guessing that there may be some grey magic to drop in the newer clutch and shifter in the older housing.

So is it possible to fit the OM gear set/clutch into an OK 1996 outdrive? I've searched and searched but can't find anything definitive.

just to postwhore my own thread,lol...

I drained the oil and it seemed to look good. Still bluish.


But I open the back cover and this is the crud coming out of there. It looks like it was leaking water in through the mating surfaces of the shift cable port.


That should help explain the crappy shifting, yes?

The internals look pretty good, oil looks almost new, maybe replace anything worn and get it sealed properly. I would also get that skeg guard off of there, just sand smooth whatever is left of the skeg, that thing will definitely hurt performance.

you can use the upgraded gears in that housing need to change the clutch too merc has a complete kit for that any merc dealer can easily do that job as there is some special tools needed to change the races on the towers

Finally found the XR gears kit for $1800 plus install.

My gears still look brand new, so I'm just going to put it back together and get another season out of it as that money could be better spent elsewhere. When I took it apart the shift cable was completely submerged in water as that little galley was full, so now with a fresh cable and seals the shifting should be tolerable.

I'm putting about 500hp to this thing. Is the billet cap worth it? I've read that the cases flexing does more damage than the volume of hp being fed to the thing.

Thanks, folks!