Decisions, Decisions I need your help.
 

I was just informed that the upper on my Bravo 1X outdrive is shot and that I'm 3 weeks out of my no claim 5 year extended warranty from Merc. Mechanic quoted me $6100 to rebuild and install. Victory Marine in Texas will send me a brand new 1 X for $5000 w/ 6 month warranty or the upper for $2800 w/ 30 day warranty. Mechanic will charge me approx. $600 to install. What should I do? TIA

Did some one call merc to try to get warranty coverd yet? And did the shop say it lookes like it would have been coverd if still with in warranty?

Yes and Yes. Merc still said no. 135 hrs. all service records and not a single claim and I get a NO. Quite shocked, total BS.

FYI- There was a B1X for sale in the classifieds for $3500? a while back. Check there.

I'd take the used one. 600 to install is deep... takes ... 15 minutes, 30 minutes... max an hour if everything goes wrong...

I'm starting to think that my dear old, trusted mechanic is giving me the shaft. :confused:

Wow no "good will" on the drive that is only out by 3 weeks on a 5 year extended warranty. Did you make sure the shop did call the claim in and try to get it covered or are they tring to make some money on you? Also $600 to install just a drive is NUTS!!! go get your boat/drive,etc and go to another marine and see what they can do for you.
Erik

$6100 for the rebuild is waste of money. 5k for the new one sounds fair but shop around you never know in this economy you may be able to do better. $600 for labor is high, unless you have no other options. You could probably find someone who would do it for you as favor, it's really not that difficult if you have done it before.
I could ask my mechanic in NJ tomorrow what he would charge if you want me to.
Just to be clear all you need is bravo 1x taken off and a new one put on?

I think that price would be for installing a new upper on his old lower, which would mean stripping and cleaning the lower, reassembly and check shimming.

500-600 is probably typical.

2800 for a new x upper is a good price

Well you also have to deal w/ the external steering. Thanks.

Very simple pulling a drive off an on is less than a half hour job with or without steering! One bolt on the tie bar and one on the drive.

If you have IMCO steering they will have to drill and tap for the rear cap.

send a pm to MR Gadgets here on oso, he should be able to fill you in on all your options and possibly repair and beef up your existing drive

I just had my upper gear fail and had the whole thing repaired for $3700. My case was fine and the lowers were OK, but your quote sounds a bit high... not sure of what else you may have to have replaced. I've got ext-steering, etc.

Give this guy who ran this ad a call
http://www.offshoreonly.com/classifi...o14715-en.html

He may have something. ( he had a B1X upper listed recently)

A friend of mine trashed his B1 upper,
and got a new B1 from him very reasonable.
( like $ 2K)

I tore down the lower and cleaned it out,
checked it out and reassembled, and it's
back in business.

The install number is nuts!

Just had one drive freshened, had the marina check alignment, lube shaft and coupler, and reinstall that one. Then also pull to check alingment, lube shaft and coupler, and reinstall the second one. Full hyd steering etc, bill had 1 hour @ 90 per, less prefered customer discount, think it cost me 75 bucks for the whole deal, I did have to top off the gear lube myself.

I had pulled the drive myself and could have easily reinstalled it, but I wanted the alingment checked out, so I had them do it. Only fair, they have the tool, and had turned the drive around for me in a few days. No lost boating time is worth a couple bucks. But 600 bucks to install one drive? Nuts!!!

Buy new drive - slap it on.

Sell the old one!