ouch!!!!
 

Any idea what would cause this?
I didn't hit anything.




http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...7/DSC_0069.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...7/DSC_0064.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...7/DSC_0062.jpg

Two things come to mind. The transom assy. has had a repair sometime in the past, if they cut corners and used parts that should have replaced.
Or I can't see the complete ujoint assy from the pics, if some part in the drive line let go you get major breakage.
Mac.

The u joint is trashed and broken.
I don't know if that is the cause or the effect.

The gimbal ring and bell housing are broken.

If it was my guess I would say that the drive shaft u-joint let loose and the rest is history. You have something spinning 3-4,000 rpm's and it breaks something has got to give --

I trust everyone was ok and besides this you made it back to shore in one piece.

3pointstar

I had it happen once before, and I too did not hit anything.
However, my U-joints and drive shaft looked fine.

Yours however, looks terrible. I suspect you had a lack of lubrication in there and/or water intrusion; which caused things to come apart. You will probably see some impact scars on the insides.

The inboard transom plate was replaced 3 years ago, so everything was apart and out of the hull at that time, maybe 40-50 hours of use since.

You would expect the ujoints would be looked at and lubed at the time.
Don't know how often you are supposed to pull the drive to check this stuff.

Yes, we made it home ok, drifted for awhile until help arrived, stupid anchor I have would not catch any traction at all.
Fortunately, we did not take on any water.

Time to start looking for some hard parts.

Take a peak inside your U-joints. Do you see any grease fittings?

Later model U-joints are sealed, no lubing. Earlier models DO need lubed probably once a year or so, not sure on the recommendation, but "BUP" will know.

It's not usual to see surface rust on those internal parts.

They break.. Period...

The input shaft must have stayed in the coupler/gimbal bearing? Lucky because a lot of water pours in through the gimbal bearing when it comes out.

I didn't think a broken u joint would break the gimbal ring like that, but there is a lot of power there.

Yes, I think I was lucky the shaft stayed in place and I didn't take on water.

I need to start finding parts,
Anyone know how to find my drive ratio, and whether I have a new or old style t-plate.

1995 Formula 271, 502, Bravo 3, 26p props.
Drive # is OF391190
Transom # is OF411486

There are no stickers on the drive.

Sounds like you might be a good canidate for my hp gimbal and bellhousing upgrade kit .

Put the serial #'s in this program and it will give you all the information you need and also you can find all the part #'s for them.
https://webapps.brunswick.com/litera...atureSearch.do

Wow, that worked looks like a 1.81.1

Always be aware of your your trim limit, if you run hard past that you will break the gimbel ring very easy

If the gimbal is not broken where the wear pads rub on it, I suspect the input shaft took out the helmet, etc. I broke one years ago and merc told me the part that the wear pad rides on will break and take out the helmet. Mine broke at 80+mph. Go to the HP transom assembly you will be better off.

GKN U joints are NON greaseable but if your app is a 1995 with all OEM original parts then the u joint were greaseable. Someone could have change them out at one timeframe being a 20 year old boat to the newer style NON greaseable GKN version.
.
With that said some one has been in your transom assembly before doing extensive work. Someone installed the Mercruiser access hole plug kit in your transom assembly instead of pulling the engine. This tells me work has 4 surely been done in the transom assembly. The plug kit are plastic and over time do not seal well. I have seen these leak plenty of times down the road. They install them in alphas as well same exact kit. Just saying

IMO and complete guessing possible your outdrive locked up and or your gimbal bearing was very close to locking up or locked up. Or transom repair from before just was it time to let go. Or wave jump hull landing on one side then pounds over to the other side. Or you just have to much power and torque for the standard assembly plus having some form of repair in the area on top of.

Man i need to put that pic on my ebay hp gimbal and get it gone .kids back to school shopping is killing me.
Have a 60 hr alpha gimbal assy on the shelf exact same break but it didnt have enough speed to dissmbowel itself like that drive is lighter had a 3 blade on it .didnt have so much as a stump mar on the lower. Prob a bad batch of reclaimed cast aluminum.

Ive hit stuff hard enough to pop the pump valve and hit stuff that twisted the prop shaft and drove on .you would know. Let us know when its torn down what happened on that one there

No ram or bellhousing stickers or ram pin caps outer. Wonder whers it was trimmed at when it snapped

There are a few things that could have happened, but now the best thing to do is a quality repair and try to prevent it from happening again, the unit has been apart before has the plug kit on it so probably repaired on the boat a practice I personally do not care for, the u joints are also rusty so a lack of service there buy a new transom assembly I would not repair that, then make sure if you are not doing the service yourself your getting the service you pay for, remove the drive every fall or spring service u joints and inspect transom assembly I also would encourage my customers before launching pull up on the lower unit on the drive and make sure there is no play inspect transom assembly before every use it only takes a few seconds and can save a lot of grief.

Thanx again for all the feed back.

The cause of the failure is still unknown.
I called my insurance company and asked them to send an adjustor out to have a look.
I MIGHT have hit something.
There are enough marks and dings on a 20 year old drive to have him suspect an impact so
he told me to take it to the Marina/dealer.

The drive was full of water plus the broken stuff, so they wrote up a quote for everything from the flywheel back, including the coupler, transom, gimbal and drive.
It has been approved and new oe parts ordered.

That is a good result imho.

The marina may be able to diagnose the failure once it is apart.

If they are allowing new OE parts, and you want new OE parts, make sure the marina installs the new OE parts.

This is where I don't trust people. Seen it way too many times.

Sounds like you may have gone from ouch , to ahhh.

Might not be a bad idea to throw in a few bucks to upgrade to a better gimbal ring .

The insurance companies are raping the boat owners on their estimates and expect the boat dealers to comply with aftermarket stuff and boats.net pricing. When an alpha outdrive is involved they the insurance companies at least half now a days quotes the SEI units and pricing. Not right. The worst is progressive insurance and they think they know all about boats and how it should be fixed plus done their way. I have a story about the shaft job they did to a boat owner that I ended up getting his boat.

I am fortunately in Canada and there is no such issue with the insurance company.
The quote for all new Merc parts and dealer labour is $16K. 9K for the drive alone.

I am also fortunate that the service mgr at the marina is a friend and boating buddy, and I am confident
that the right stuff will be properly installed.

Here's hoping I get back in the water this season.

Good news on the insurance, curious how long have you had the boat, and your buddy the service manager how long has he been maintaining it? Time wise on the repair it is just a couple day job I am sure you will be floating soon, best of luck.

I have had the boat for about 7 years.
I do my own routine maintenance.
The only big job the boat has had was a transom plate install about 4 years ago, so the engine etc was removed at that time, by the dealer.
I don't know if the ujoint is grease able or not.
If there is a lack of drive maintenance, that would be on me, not the dealer.
It has not been routinely removed for service as it appears, is a good idea....

It would be a good idea to once a season remove the drive grease u joints and the splines. Like I said when the parts are in it is only a couple day job, you'll be in ship shape soon!!

Got the boat back a few weeks ago and have had it out twice since.
Couldn't be happier.
Everything works as new, well it is.
I got back about 12 mph that I have been losing over the last few years.
My old drive has been on the way out for awhile, must have been a gimbal bearing or drive bearing bound up.
The whole drive train is freed up and it is very responsive. It gets on plane much faster blasts from 30 to 60 mph very quickly,
I'll do a video next time I'm out.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...7/DSC_0080.jpg

Take a pic of your props from the back side - want to see how they are clocked (timed / phased)

rotate your props so that one blade is dead center lined up with the anti ventilation plate then take a pic and post it

Now that you mention it, to my untrained eye, they don't look right.


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...DSC_0001_1.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...DSC_0003_1.jpg

more so with 3 blade and 3 blade set your props up dead center blade to as shown in the pic on thread # 31 in the link below. Since you have 4 blade up front and 3 balde on back still give it a try as to position your a front blade center and the rear prop blade center bottom position exactly. See if your boat handles or planes quicker or has tad bit bit more speed.

Report back what happens when you set up props like the pic in post # 31 below.. Thanks.

Again 3 / 3 blade props really do make difference as a clover leaf pattern set up and your 4 /3 blades not as much but I still would like to see what takes place by trying it. THX

Link and post # 31 pic hopes shows you exactly what I am talking about for clocking the props. Mercruiser Blackhawks require these prop positions, Just saying.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...r-drive-4.html

So, I should clock them to fill in the gaps as much as possible?

Dude forget about clocking the props. Get them fixed. Looks like you ran through a shoal.

Yipper, 2nd outing with new props and I dinged them on a rock.
They will be fixed over the winter.