Bravo upper gear set
 

Dissasembled the upper drive because of a lazy forward shifting. Upper clutch was glazed. Will work some valve coumpound on it and flip it upside down for a second life. And then... There is this:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560219[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560221[/ATTACH]
Small chiped spot on one of the lower gear's teeth
And
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560220[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]560222[/ATTACH]
Another light chiped spot on ujoint shaft gear

Manual says as soon as anything is spotted, replace...
I wonder, overall condition of the gear set seems good with no missing or broken teeth, Do you guys replace as soon as any little wear shows up? Do I need a new gear set now? It may have been like that for a
While

Once the gears start pitting, they are done.

Those gears are trashed, wouldnt dream of reusing them, even flipped over, fwiw , Smitty

what do you mean flipped over

Swapping top and bottom gear. Like swapping port and starboard drive so other side of gears get used (good side)

If you flip them, you have to swap the sides the drives are on right

If you have twins and swap drives port to starboard, the drives will be running on the opposite side of gears. Some people switch back and forth each year to try and make gears last longer. With a single if upper gears are worn on one side you can swap the gears top to bottom to get more life out of them. If a single the lower gears will still be running on the same side of gear teeth.

and the pinion is always running on the same surface. you could build a reverse rotation engine to get some life out of the other side though

Exactly. They continue to come apart shedding metal into the oil and thru the bearings. Fix now before it turns into a complete rebuild of drive.

Arcticfriends you get my PM?

Grannysshifting, your pm box is full.

Need more than 3 limit!

Thanks to all for the inputs... Looks like I'l have to rebuild my upper.
Questions for a Bravo X 2006:
Should I change all the bearings, shims, races that I found in there?
I would have the pinion gear pre loaded to the specs but If I replace with exact same original parts to rebuild the unit, will I have to re-shim and do other adjustments before torquing with the spanner wrench to get the pinion gear back in? It's really confusing in the manual...

The cone clutch is just a few hundred dollars. If you are in the drive, go ahead and replace it too.

Planing on it... It was actually the reason i opened the upper for. Then I had the surprise with the gears. I wonder if with the exception of the pinion gear that has to be preloaded if there is any other special adjustments involved when replacing all the other parts in the upper? In the manual, when they put the pinion shaft back in before torquing with the spanner wrench, they seem to f@! around with shimming and adjustements in order the get the pinion gear at the right place.

Anytime you replace upper gear set, it should be shimmed to specs to get the proper gear lash. Not all gears sets are identical to each other, hence the setup needs to be checked. If the thrust bearings and inner bearings have no damage they can be reused. Look at them with a strong magnifying glass to check the needles. If any metal particles come out of them, then replace them. If the inner ones have metal in them or don't roll smoothly then replace them. Shims are subject to damage also. Check them, flip them over, but a lot times they need to be replaced to get the gear lash to come in.

Hope that helps.
Dick