Re: Bravo XR drive
 

The name of the game is "Baby it".....I'm running a Bravo 1 w1:36 gears behind a 1078 Hp Procahrged 572 in my Baja. I'm thru my second weekend and haven't broke it .....yet. I ease her up on plane then go....these boat ain't flat bottom drag racers. I've tickle 90 w/ her with more to go ..... but lake Michigan hasn't been good for flat out runs lately.... The drive was done by Mr.Gaggets...I plan on replacing it w/a XR. Just curious how long this one will last ....

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

keeping it together is your job, most drive failures are because of

1) launching boat
2) hitting submerged objects
3) too much power for that drive
4) poor maintenance

Not necessarily in that order


Keep in mind that the cheapest and best thing you can do to "keep it together" is change the gear lube as often as you can I ussually recomend every 50 hrs or less depending on application

oh also as stated "baby it" in other words dont launch it, if you do back off the throttles before reentering, no hard starts,ect ect ect


below is the merc maintenance schedule for std drives (bravo) in a performance application cut all the times/hours in half or better

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

Whats up with these guys and these damn blown BAJA'S :evilb: :evilb: .Did Mr gadgets put new style bravo gears and a steel tower in your drive?The old style gears sheared right off (at the floor) in my boat as soon as I went to a 28 pitch prop. Would be interesting to see how much power the thick floored std bravo gears can actiually take,Smitty

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

A friend of mine had a 26 baja with a 850 and a std bravo and ran it at the stops most of the time used to go through 3 drives a year average that was a scary boat

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

Cool Thanks, do you have an exploded view showing all parts in question that need maintenance.

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

well I do but its over many many pages best thing would be to buy a service manual, I have them in pdf form but would take me for ever to post all the pages that cover it

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

Seahawk,
Depending on boat size, weight, hp, driving habits, etc.. determines the life of an XR drive. You can break anything if you try hard enough. If you have a tendency to fly your boat, you must match prop speed to water speed. When reentering the water the prop should be pushing as hard as it left.. or other wise, depending on boat size, weight, hp, the shafts twist or break. Oil change interval on the XR is more often, especially during beak in.. the net forged gears give off metal and continue to do so during there life span. Which gets into the tappered bearings and shortens their life. Expect to get 150-250hrs on the net forged gears, if running stock power, much less as the hp curve goes up.
So grease ujoints, change drive oil often, check the magnets for flakes or chunks. A good drive shower helps. Weak points in the XR is the vertical shaft and the gears themselves..

Hope this helps..

Dick

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

Another way to prolong the life is if you have twins is swap sides with the drives. This changes the the gear sets used going forward. the problem is metal fatigue. Tiny cracks show up in the gears thats why you should take them apart for NDT (non distructive testing) Much cheaper than buying new drives after they explode.
Ed

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

Thanks men

Re: Bravo XR drive
 

I put 100 hrs on my xr's on my tiger last year, and wasnt easy on them, 3 poker runs last year, out nearly every weekend and launched over many waves. I don't think I'm a better throttle man than anyone else, changed the oil every 25 hours and inspected, they were perfect. I dont do hole shots, and try to keep it trimmed for the condition to ease stress...so far so good.(simrek halo showers too)