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?