These were cryoed, polished.. etc.. lasted 25 hrs.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...xzgears002.jpg

That looks like a Bravo 1 or 1X hypoid cut gear instead of a straight cut XR gear. What was the engine power that broke it?

Back in 9-20-2006 zt260 said that he had nitrided his gears and they were holding up early on.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...eriment-8.html

Does anyone know how well his gears held up over time versus w/o the nitriding?

To make a very long story short.

The gears worked great. They lasted almost 50 hours when I broke a vertical shaft. My bad, I jumped on it in the midrange and snap.

The gears came from Dean of the old Bravo Shop. He turned out to be a real snake, but back then he treated me well. I guess I was his guinea pig.

When the gears came out they were still in good shape, but damaged from the vertical shaft. Dean said he tested the nitrite and it was under ¼ worn so theoretically it might have lasted me 100 or more hours. Bear in mined I kill cryoed gears in about 25 hours.

He told me the process was expensive like $700, but it would be worth it to extend a gear set 4 times its normal life. The big problem is Dean would not tell me who did it and said he could never get them to make anymore for him.

I think the process has real potential if someone can do it properly.

Dave,
If I remember our conversations, you have successfully gotten 2-3 times the gear life from your lower after you had them treated by Dick. Considering your power level, not bad at all.
...... Just want to add my experiences on this...
I too have had similiar experiences with treating of xr gears, both upper and lower. First the upper...I had an old set of uppers treated, that lasted a very long time. Then the pinion finally wore out and took out the forward gear. I put a new treated set in, wore them out in 1 season. After I threw up a few times , I ordered an SCX upper. Kept my SC lower. Ran the SCX this season. Due to ocean conditions, not a real good year ( a lot of wind ), but managed to get 50+ hours and 950 miles on it. Tore the upper completely apart this winter. From what I saw, forget about worn out, there wasnt even any signs of wear! Thats $2k the SCX saved me this season from buying a new set of XR uppers.
On to the lower. As I said, I am running an SC lower. I have had success with getting multiple seasons from a set of treated lower gears. Of course, the main 2 things are still set up and driving it right.
I have also set up drives with treated gears ( keep in mind, older XR upper gear sets ) with great success in a friends 35 Sonic with 575's

From my personal experiences, the treatment seems to work as long as the gears you are treating are not a bannana to begin with.

Any comment from Merc on premature failures of current XR gears
 

Has anyone discussed the premature failures of recent production XR gears with Merc?

Tried. You can't get through to anyone who really knows the product. These morons they have answering the phone now don't even know what a water pressure sensor is....

And if you do get through or know someone who can, I guarantee you the response will be pacification at best.

They don't care. It will just be blamed on neglect and user's lack of knowledge and experience (which in normal cases is often very true).

My problem is the choice's that I'm left with.

1. Fix it so it breaks again very soon and may not be so lucky next time it goes...

2. Put a smaller set of gears in it which would defeat my purpose of buying an XR to begin with. Could have saved the money and bought an X or kept the two I just practically GAVE away!!!

3. Dump the XR drive all together and then figure out some way replace this product with something in it's "class". But there really isn't anything else for me which is why I bought it to begin with.

I'm right there in that power and torque range where I need / want a drive that is a little better than a regular bravo. I wanted some cushion so I can play a little hard and not worry.

I realize I sound like a little b_tch but I'm pretty butt-hurt over this. I'm pretty well stuck and can't get out of it without WASTING a fair amount of coin.

I have yet to begin my search for the same gears from another vendor yet. No sense in taking it apart until I'm ready to finish something. If I find anything I'll be sure to share.

If any of you have friends or close ties to Merc, I'd appreciate any help or info.

My Question Is This:
 

Approx how many owners out there have the later model XR's and haven't had this problem?

There has to be a bunch. By "later" I mean late 2005 and up to 2010.

Consider how many Fountain 35's were sold with 525's in them. Every single one of those boats had the same vintage XR's on the back except custom orders where they asked for ASD's or some other expensive upgrade.

And that's Just the fountains I see.

All the other manufactures combined?? There's gotta be several thousand XR's with these same gears in them and they have not ALL failed.

Just something to think about...

ICD, I'm not sure what to say about your issue. However, I used two of my X's like pack mules before I upgraded to the XR.

I mean, with NO exaggeration... I beat the absolute snot out of those two drives. Took a long time to break.

And the 2nd one only broke due to my decision to over-prop the boat for too long.

I was going to send the prop in for work but I was using the boat 3 - 4 times every week and just put it off.

I knew it was over-propped and it finally broke the shaft. But I think it would still be going had I been more diligent about propping it correctly, sooner...

My upper X gears only broke when I over proped with a 26P5X and ran it hard.

So your 'second' X drive failure was a shaft and not the upper gears. Assuming the 'first' X drive failure was gears, how many hours before it failed and what prop were you running?

Would you consider returning to a Bravo X drive as an option?