Ok long story short... friend of mine has a chapperel 2550 sx 454/brovo. End of last year hit something and bent prop/prop shaft, basically tore up his drive. I suggested a friend/shop to him that i trust to good work. he already had a shop in mind in the south Chicago area that he was confident could trust. Shop finished his boat at the end of the year last year and he did not have the ability to put it in the water and test it, so he just winterized the boat and stored it for winter, Fast forward, start of this year he tossed boat in the water and it got stuck in gear first time out. he calls said "expert" and told him of the issue. "expert" told him that he prob needs a new lower shift cable... it looked bad when he put the new drive on...but he did not replace it. Boat goes back to "expert" , new cable gets put on and all is well next outing. Well. the next outing did not go so good..... i guess he was just crusing along and the boat started rev, slipping. It was stuck in forward... he gets a tow back calls his guy and waits for him to get time to look at it. After inspection guy tells him he heated up the drive and pushed the fluid out of the top of drive and the drive is toast. he has called me to ask advise... i don't really know if this is possible. i don't really see how he came heat a drive up idling for an hour...he has a total of 3 hours on this drive and its is junk now. just looking for some input to see if you guys feel this could happen.

The entire drive should have been taken apart and inspected the first time. Chances are it wasn't and the impact caused damage to the upper as well.

I'm guessing he did not turn it into his insurance.

that's a good question. I know he said it got hot right after the hit... He did not make it back to the dock. Yes he did turn it in to insurance!! They paid for the new drive... They also told him that if the new one blew after just a few hours... That between him and the shop... They want no part of it.

If it did happen like that, a bearing could have been seizing in the upper

So insurance paid for a new drive and he got jimmy cut rate to patch his old one back together ad it gernaded?

No he got a brand new one!! That drive did not last 3 hours. The guy esentually just swapped his drive with a brand new Mercury unit. The thing never really worked well from the time he picked it up..... Guy claimed it was the lower shift cable.

Maybe he should have got a Bravo instead.

Grrrrr

I'm betting it had little or no oil in it. Never seen a drive heat up and "Push all the oil out" and even if it did there would be one hell of a mess in the bilge. Did he check the reservoir before he ran it? Maybe the expert drive guy just poured lube in from the top until the level was between the marks?

Make sure the drive he got was brand new.

Unfortunately I've seen a few people close to me not get a new drive when they where supposed to.