help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

I tried to remove my bravo and it will not budge so I took whole boat to my local certified merc guy and he confirmed it will not budge and is stuck in coupler
we are now talking about using a sawsall to cut drive shaft and coupler in half to yank motor and then get drive off any suggestion I really donyt want to have to try and cut it out

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

bummer...

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

Loosen the engine mounts and try raising or lowering the front of the motor slightly while hauling back on the drive. Usually a stuck shaft is due to the coupler being misaligned.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

thanks for the idea I will give it a try.
The motors were installed last year and are in solid offshore mounts and I was there when my merc guy alighned them and redrilled the mount and they were as close to perfect as you can get
But anything can happen

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

Hopefully the transom assembly's were not glued on with 5200. If they were then this won't work. You could also try loosening the transom assemblies. Air is proably right on this one: something is majorly out of alignment.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

Can you get grease in the fitting? Maybe enough pressure to pop it loose.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

well all good advice

my plan is to force as much grease into it as possible
Switch props and run the drives in oposite drections to try help loosen then try to remove by loosening engine mounts and giggling the fromt of motor
If that fails I will try and loosen the coupler and remove motor and get a puller on coupler or have better acces to cut shaft
If I cant loosen coupler from flywheel I will sawzall though coupler and shaft

Hope first options work last two are a pain in the arse

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

I had this problem once and what worked for me was to disconnect the trim rams, put a 2x4 across between the drive and the transom assembly, under the drive. Then I just raised the drive up and let it drop against the 2x4, freed it up on the 3rd drop.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

I have seen a few boats with Bravos where the gimbal bearing was replaced with the wrong bearing that is thicker and then the drive was pulled in with the 6 bolts to get it all the way in. When it was time to remove the drive, the tapered part of the shaft was so wedged in the bearing, that it did not want to come out. A lot of penetrating oil some impact tool hammering and the shaft finally released from the bearing and came out. Hope this is not your problem. Its a tough job!

Ray @ Raylar

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

Cant you take apart the upper and remove the drive shaft/u-joint from the drive without cutting it? You could spot weld a slide hammer to the shaft after you remove the u joint and beat it out. Then you would just have to replace the drive shaft and your gimbal bearing and whatever else is damaged in there.
I don't know if this would work but someone should know.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

In order to remove the drive shaft, the retainer nut must be removed. To do that you need access to the front of the drive, which wont happen until it is removed from the transom assy..

I like the drop test that Nova26 described. All will be hard on it, but this one does use energy that is stored in the weight of the drive, just may work.

Running with props switched wont do much.. motor still turns one way. Compressed air in a cylinder to get it to turn opposite, but you still need to hold the shaft from turning... The sawsall maybe the easiest.. New coupler and input shaft. You may find the input shafts available used??

Good luck with this one. Let us know how it works out..

Dick

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

Here is something I read in a mag recently.

Disconnect the rams, remove the nuts, put a board between the front top of the drive and the gimbal, lift the drive from the prop shaft by hand. The board should be snug before you start.

You might leave the rams connected and use them to raise the drive with the board, but I would be afraid of breaking something.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

I think I have a new input shaft around. Pm me if interested.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

If it's stuck in an "Aluminum" splined coupler, it might have worn the splines and jammed in the splines. You could try putting the drive in reverse and turn the propshaft backwards to pop it back into the splines. Might be worth a try.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

I dont know if this makes sense but if the transmission is in the drive, no matter what gear you are in wouldn't the drive shaft always spin in the same direction? I don't think it would be possible to spin it the other direction.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

Have someone rotate the motor slowly by hand while using a blunt point on an air chisel to vibrate the input shaft as near as possible to the coupler. You can use the drive rams to keep outward pressure on the drive by putting a cut 2x2 between the middle of the upper gear housing and lower gimbal ring. Trim the drive down against the 2x2 a little at a time. Keep greasing the coupler zerks each time the come around. The best air hammer to use is the Snap On long barrel if you can get your hands on one. Very powerful!

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

Well I just lived through this. I destroyed a drive (internally) and a piece of gear must have momentarily lock the drive which led to the shaft twisting (the splines) in the coupler. The drive came off easy, but the shaft stayed because the last inch of case (with seal and shaft) had broken. I tried everything. Hooked my loader up to the shaft (universal) and tried pulling it out. No chance. I ended up cutting (filing) through the shaft. That takes a while and have a number of good blades. Had to pull the motor and change the coupler. Not fun and not cheap. Good luck.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

I had an alpha stuck because the shaft was frozen to the gimbal bearing. Tried dropping it, and the roping the drive to a tree and pulling the trailer forward. Finally I hung the drive from an engine hoist and tied a steel cable to my lawn tractor got a running start and wham the drive and bearing all came out dandy.
Ken

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

go to your john deer dealer get a can of fluid film ,this stuff
makes wd-40 & crc look like cooking oil, best penetrating
solvent i have ever seen you might try spraying some on it
let it sit over nite

might help :drink:

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

I had trouble getting my drive out after I lost a gear in it. I did something similar to the above, but just dropping it didnt work. I had a 280lb friend jumping up and down on it. It came out and fell to the groundm but so did he. This is why it was stuck in the coupler.

Re: help Bravo drive stuck in coupler
 

Nova Is Right The 2x4 Method Usually Works