Drive shaft shield important or not ?
 

I just took the Bam tranny out of my boat and I'm installing a drive shaft so I don't have to relocate my engine . I know in OPA and racing that drive shaft shields are required but how important are they ? Has anyone had a driveshaft/driveline failure cause damage or propel debris .
It's not an issue if I need to build one for it but I really didn't want the obstruction in the bay preventing me from cleaning and servicing the shaft and bearings . with no shield it would be so easy to just reach down and do a quick bearing check before I go out .
Now if an overwhelming amount think yes that I have to have one and that the shield is not precautionary overkill then I will get one in the immediately ..

Also the BAM 1350 is for sale if anyone needs it .

its not so much the odstruction id be worried about. from my experiance with them i like them! they keep the u-joint grease from flying in your bilge!!!

p.s please use classifieds for advertising your tranny for sale:party-smiley-004:

I didn't think about the grease slinging !
Funny Tim ! It is in the classifieds I just figured I would throw it out there !

you would be pissed wiping grease off the girls on the inside of your hatch!!! unless it was white grease then they would have a pearl necklass

Joe,
I'd say very important. Anything that touches the shaft will wrap around it. Mine just has covers on the differentials at each end. Almost resulted in my boat sinking once. Blower ventilation tube fell on to it while running and the wire wrapped around the shaft and whipped against everything. It cut the incoming water line to the point where water was seeping through it. One more little cut and I would have had a bunch of water in the boat if not sunk. It beat one of the teague sea strainers and fittings so bad I had to replace them. Not to mention all the gel and nice bilge paint beaten up. Trim lines needed to be replaced, etc... Plastic from the hose nearly completely blocked the air intake of the whipples. Still to this day I find wire pieces from the reinforcement.
A rag, rope, anything can get around it and the least it will do is make a mess. Strong vote to take the time to rig it with the shield.

Yea if anything makes a mess on my girls I'de be pi$sed !

Bam 1350
 

I thought the purpose of a transmission was to protect the outdrive in high HP applications?

Yes joe they are a must! I have seen a boat with the new 1350s and it snapped a driveshaft
And if there was no cover it would have messed a lot more up then just the cover.

I treated a guy who shattered his jaw when a drive line broke loose and hit him. It was ugly!

Please tell more of this story . How was his face even near the driveline while running