Older Bravo's
 

There has been alot of discussion around the hood and on this board regarding drive failure. I just recently joined the broken drive club myself when my starboard Bravo One failed behind a stock HP500EFI motor with 160 hrs on drives. Two seasons on a 2000 year boat :mad:

My old boat (1992 336 Formula) has two original stock Bravo Ones behind 530hp Teague Motors. These drives have over 600 hours of flawless running. Other people have told me stories of older Bravos running 1000 hrs.

Are the new Bravos made of inferior metal from other countries :confused: They dont seem to last long.

Any other old Bravo stories ?

I think this thread has enough potential to break reply record from apache...but bravo owners are bored to write about their broken drives.believe me every owner has a story tell.....:D :D :D

I had an 88 Bravo with a modified 454 about 400 hp never had a problem with if over 450 hours before I sold the boat.

I just sold a 1989 Baja with twin 7.4`s/Bravo`s.

The boat had 760 hrs and no problems

Its amazing that the these old antiquated Bravos are holding up better than the new generation Bravos with straight cut gears and all the other hype. What the hell has Mercury done to reliablity ???

Even though my new drive was covered under warranty my boat was still down 3weeks :mad:

Could it be because of the higher X dimensions?

Sure my older Bravos held up better, but then again the boat was only 28' with a pair of stock 454s. Now I have 41' with 600s, maybe that's why they aren't holding up as well. I think the higher X has something to do with it along with those Bravo 1 props will all that extra bite. Never broke a drive with Hydros, can't say that about the B1 props.

Ever heard of "cost reducing"? We do it all the time. Everytime we come out with a new product, the first thing manufacturing does is try and figure out how to make it cheaper and that never ends. Im sure Merc does the same thing. I like my old 88 Bravo's and I can show you differences in the castings, shifters and other parts from later models that prove it.

We have all heard of cost containment and Im sure Mercury is doing the same, but at what cost. If a drive came out right now from a third party manufacturer <$10,000K that proven itself reliable to 800 hp, Mercury would be out of the drive business, end of story, good bye, good night.

Are we as consumers getting used to the idea that it is ok that manufacturers produce defective products. You may have said no to this question but just look at that Microsoft OS you are using. :eek:

Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now :D

Very true, but sadly, when you have as much market share as Mercruiser (and the co. I work for) does, everyone tends to get very arogant. No one remembers the lessons learned by the American car manufacturers in the 70's and 80's when they didnt listen to their customers and the imports hurt them.

I doubt a good high performance entry into our market would hurt Merc at all. They would still continue to sell package deals to the manufacturers and only those very few, high end boats would offer the "better" drives as an option.