Small Chunks On XR Drain Magnet :(
 

Not concerned about the fuzz on the magnet but these chunks were also stuck to it. Drive oil otherwise looked good. Are these most likely from the upper gears? The upper magnet was clean. If I pull the back cover off the old style XR can I inspect the gears? Thanks.
http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/x...pssl51sm5k.jpg

You need to completely disassemble the WHOLE drive. Upper and lower need to be cleaned and inspected. Nothing good will happen if you just find the broken part and replace it. Its a great time to have a complete rebuild done.

I would also suspect its your lower gears. Chunks that big would have a hard time making it to the bottom case IMO.

Thanks. I will pull the drive and take it to my mechanic, Brian, of Orlandi Performance. Big water boating is done now anyway.

I see a rebuild in you future. Small chucks make bigger ones. Then...... BOOM !!!!!!:lolhit: new drive time...That's how my summer ended anyway..

Yeah, the drive is off and going to Brian Monday. He said he can get right on it.

How many hours?

Look at the bright side, at least it still holds oil. Usually when 1 of mine lets go it takes the case too. Always pays to check the magnets.

Agree with all above. I'm lucky to get 35 hrs out of a set of lower XR gears before the magnets start looking like a Chia Pet.. It will be good to know what's going on, I suspect your lower gears have some heavy pitting, since you don't have any debris on the upper, you might luck out and not have to replace upper gear$.. Good maintenance program (checking the magnets etc) can really save a LOT of money. -Also curious on the hours..

There are 2 seasons on the upper and a whole bunch of seasons and hours on the lower. It's an Imco lower with at least 200 hours. Brian said the Imco uses the same gears as the XR lower. I thought the lowers were bulletproof. The good thing is if the damage is limited to the lower then the cost will be a lot less! I'll find out Monday. He's going to get right on it.

That looks like a case of XR gear acne...nothing that a $ 1900 upper gear set, or if your lucky like Kurt a $ 750 lower gear set won't fix.....I've had a lot more uppers that lowers do this.

Interesting as my XR issues typically start with lower gear pitting/debris on lower magnet. My upper magnets seem to stay pretty clean. When I lose an upper, it's an immediate failure, caused by ripping a tooth out of the forward gear. In the 5 years I've owned my 30 Mystique T/S, it seems to eat 2 drives a season. This year, we lost one on Fourth of July and Labor Day and that's not the first time we've blown stuff up on major holidays! lol.

If you're running XR's, you need spares ready to go. We've got 4 drives and rotate them when the magnets start looking ugly..

Biggus....2 drives per season ?? Man you need to learn how to work those throttles :)

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Sell all of them and go Here^^^^^ problem solved! I was eating atleast 2 a year. If I got 20 hours out of my XRs I felt lucky.

But we believe it's my Imco lower that is going. The XR upper gears looked good with Brian's cool little camera probe.

When I saw this in mine, 4 hrs later the upper gears were toast and broke the tower in the upper, $2500 later I was good to go

Id take it apart now and save what is left

It's in my mechanic's hands now. He did inspect the upper gears and they look fine. We think the chunks are from the Imco lower. I hope to be back on the water by this week-end. :)

I'd pay the extra $$ to have him at least pull the upper gear set out and flush/inspect the bearings. The fluid from the lower does make its way into the upper. All it takes is a little bit of debris in the needle bearings to really make an expensive mess... I know first hand.. July 4th, I had a tower needle bearing get loose, get between the pinion and forward gear and all went to crap really quick...

I trust Brian to do what needs to be done. I filtered the old oil and not one bit of debris or glitter was in there so it looks like the small chunks were it and the magnet got them. I should talk to him today.

Carl I just saw an old post on the "Microboats thread" where your speed was 85.80 MPH. Was this before you did the LU welding
and shaping? Was there a gain after the modifications or did the work just stop the "burning".