Do you think it's possible to resolve the issue in the straight cut gear, with only a single tooth making contact? Or would it be better to build a beefier helical replacement set?

This is what a change to the teeth can do....

Kid

The size of the case is the limiting factor. There are more things I am working on...

Have you seen how skinny a Volvo DPX outdrive is especially the upper ? heck those things had 600 Innovation marine engines and some people even boosted those engines from that and left the DPX completely alone. I know a guy who has about 500 hours on his DPX and runs in the Pacific all the time and he is extremely hard on everything in the boat. Runs like he stole the damn thing.

Any long term results with the Drive Guardian? By looking at it I cant see how it would help on a steady load only high shock situations.

IMO a better gear with a Drive Gaurdian in front of it would be a great combo for an XR that would live a long time. The Drive Guardian is designed to lessen shock loads as that is what snaps drive parts...

Nope. But the boat spends half the year in St Pete.

We installed the Drive Guardians so long ago I had forgotten all about them. Maybe this is significant reason why our Bravos have lasted so long. For sure they are cheap insurance along with good parts and fresh gear with a drive cooler system.
Smitty, did your oil cooler system add any measurable life to your drive?

Man do I wish they would bring those back. I have almost two complete set up i purchased in pieces through the years on Ebay. They other nice thing about those drives are the shear coupler between the upper and lower that, in theory, with give before the drive. I have busted a few and the repair was under eighty bucks and maybe fifteen minutes to do.


Volve = engineering before marketing

Merc = marketing and expired patent research

I hear you Dave the Volvo SX and DP have the drive saver coupler to. The thing is you will get owners calling that they hit something and then tell you their drive is shot because it wont do anything. I always tell them, lets see if you broke the coupler and that is a cheap fix compared to 10 k for a DP or SX. The last I checked with Volvo for a DPX, retail was 18 k or that might have been dealer cost. I really liked that package and a couple weeks ago worked on a twin app DPX 600's and will again next week.

The early DPX upper drives were like tooth picks just saying