Rob, a few years ago when I needed a coupler I was told by various speed guru's that they prefer the aluminum hub couplers as opposed to the new HD Steel hub couplers.

I believe it was less vibrations.....and claimed they held up just as well and the HD's had some problems with the rubber bonding to the steel hub....

are we talking about hubs or couplers now even I am confused

I think he is talking about the couplers, I also am running an aluminium one, have had as much as 850hp going through it and it's 8 years old, looks like new, lubrication and good alignment are key.

Prop hubs are interchangeable, they recommend solid for 500hp and up, they are sold separate from the props so it's not inconceivable that he has the stock prop hubs in when they should be solid.

A look and smell of the drive oil may tell if anything is wrong there.

Every engine coupler has a hub (splines) in the middle. The HD engine couplers for a bravo have a steel hub, the standard coupler has an aluminum hub.

We cked the drives today ,one had a chipped off tooth in the the gear in the lower.


He ordered 2 new style HD solid couplers .We think just one spun out this time . He did also admit the one that had spun out and while he was idling in the engine was off while trying to get back on plane with the other

I am starting to think he might of jumped it out of the water because of the chipped off tooth?


Also the shop charged him $3200.00 for replacing the last 2 couplers. That seemed kinda high to me. All they had to do was pull drive pull motors forward swap out couplers and reassembly and hopefully align the engines

what ever caused it this last time .He will defiantly find the week link with these solid couplers

In my own opinion that technically doesnt amount to a can of beans...
They seen him coming, figured he had solid off shore mounts so it was an easy job, did not bother to correctly realign them and ran off with the money.

Other than that, only thing I can think of was improper preparation of the splines, units heated up, couplers performed their duty.
Oh... and seen once that the engines were removed(offshore mounts once again), set down, confusion towards unknowing identity, drives slid in place "somewhat" smoothly and (as stated)did not bother to double check the work... another oops that cost people hard cash.

The drive that has the broken tooth, is that the same one that spun the coupler? Is the second one just blowing the prop out when he trys to get on plane?

Honestly, I wouldn't have looked to pay more than $600 to R&R each engine, install the coupler, plus the cost of the coupler itself.. You're talking 8 hrs of labor for BOTH engines at whatever the shop rate is... I understand rates are higher but minus the couplers that's roughly $2800 in labor, that's just absurd to R&R two engines...

Frank he doesent relate info to well to me and it in the Boat shop now. He said it was about 7.5 R&R the engine .I guess the labour rate is around 75 an hour here.I am sure he paid anout 900 for the old style couplers the rest was labor He said they did it in one day


I bet his bill is higher ,plus the gear parts, he overnighted all the parts and told them he wanted it by this coming Tue.

$1500 total for that job sounds about right....

Plus, add any other shop charges such as launch and haul with travel/fork lift if needed.... If the boat is kept at the marina than scratch that off...

Geeze, maybe I was too honest when I was writing service...