Bravo XR Rebuild
 

Just recently bought a 2008 Advantage X-Flight 29 with the 525 EFI and Bravo XR drive. First time out the drive, while under way, had a very loud whining sound that could be heard over the open exhaust sound and spraying drive oil all over my engine bay even with a drive shower. I only noticed this when I got home and opened the engine bay. Another issue was the fact that the drive alarm did not go off once the drive oil level fell below the add drive oil marker on the remote drive reservoir. Was told by the previous owner the whine was normal for that drive and once or twice a season he had to top off the drive reservoir. My last two boats had Bravo one drives so I believed what he had told me. Decided to take it in for servicing on Monday to play it safe and now find out the drive was about to fail. Looks like both the upper and lower gear sets will need to be replaced alone with some bearings. Lesson learned, as they say, buyer beware.

Bummer, sorry to hear

I’ve rebuilt more than my share of XR’s and I’ve never had to replace the upper and lower gear sets at the same time, more often than not,it’s the uppers, and yes, they do develop a whine to them

I too just took apart my XR and found the upper and lower gear sets were pitting. There was no whining with mine. I did break my other side last year so i was looking in to this one this year to prevent another break. I think my issues was from poor oil and maintenance from the previous owner. Last summer was my first with the boat and it only has 260 hours on 525's in a 35 fountain. I am just starting to look into other options

I use Amsoil ,,Severe Gear 75-90 ,,full synthetic gear oil .

The spraying drive oil is most likely coming from the reservoir, it would be very tough for drive oil to get thru the transom assembly. There is an o ring in the cap of the reservoir, and if thats gone it will spray drive oil all over your engine and bilge area.

Well the drive was completely rebuilt. Will be picking up the boat later next week. Because it has a lower water intake what is the best way to flush. I have just been placing the muffs over the vertical water intakes but doing so just causes a lot of water to be dispersed through the low water intake causing less water to get up into the motor for flushing. Should I order the OEM Mercury low water intake flusher and if so who would have the best pricing?

I did see the OEM DWP flusher on Ebay. It costs $82.00. It does have a bungee chord that holds it on and also has a hose attachment. Looks like you put it on with the bungee chord and just turn on the water. I guess then it would be a good idea to block off the vertical inlet holes on the lower drive where my normal flusher mounts. I think I could fabricate a mount to just block off the DWP along with a bungee chord which would be less expensive than spending $82.00 on a piece of plastic and bungee.

Just tape over the lower hole with black gorilla tape. Works fine

Did get a chance to take out the boat after the rebuild. No more noise coming out of the drive and no more oil drive fluid coming out of the drive oil container. Very happy with the rebuild. The rebuilder had to replace both upper and lower gears, along with some bearings. So, as I was told, "this is a high performance drive and will always be noisy", by the previous owner. I now believe the first owner was well aware of what was going on and sold it to the second owner who had no boating experience. That is what the first owner said to the second owner. Where I made my mistake was to have a marine surveyor look over the boat and then tell me everything checked out after charging me $500. Lesson learned, no matter how much it costs, you need to look at the boat in person and not rely on a third party. Its funny, when I asked the second owner why he was selling the boat after only owning it for about 4 months he told me, "this boat is too fast for my family and my wife is afraid to go out with me". It's amazing how some people can sleep at night.

I wouldn't necessarily call BS to that story. When I sold my 32 Fountain, we went for a test ride on a small close lake. New owner just wanted some driving tips. Going for a simple short run at about 50mph, I turned to look backwards and saw his wife in the back seat sitting damn near on the floor afraid to look up. They still bought it. Dont know if they kept it.

Cool boat and glad to hear you got it fixed up! Great decision to be proactive... now you have a good piece of mind to enjoy it! Where do you normally run?