Well, don't laugh, but I bought a 0 to 1 lb fish (type) scale and use a measured 12 inch long lever arm attached to the shaft to pull from. You can get quite accurate this way as long as the shaft you are measuring the preload on is held vertical.. Anything else and the weight of the measuring device will corrupt your readings.

BT

blue thunder,

Now your talkin my kinda tools blue!! Thank you very much!! I was going to use a one pound weight and move the distance from 6 to 10 inches. But I like your idea better. Did you take the ujoints completely off the yoke? I have the drive shaft off, because it is 3 ft long.. Imco box and the constant velocity cage is still on the yoke.. I guess I can remove it and work with just the yoke..
Thanks again blue! You are my hero!!

Tinkerboater, thanks for the offer. I will try the scale thing, I know it will work. Thanks!

Waterfoul,, you sure that torque wrench is in/lbs instead of ft/lbs.. 1/2" drive I am betting it measures ft instead of in... Thanks!

Dick

Waterfoul,, you sure that torque wrench is in/lbs instead of ft/lbs.. 1/2" drive I am betting it measures ft instead of in... Thanks!

I agree -- mine is 1/4 drive

MR Gadget... take off what ever will make you get readings you feel are accurate. You will know... just play with it a while.

Glad I could help.. and good luck,

BT

Bluethunder,
I ended up making a scale by using a return spring off of a shotgun muffler.. and a can of vanilla pudding that was labeled 15.75oz net weight. It ended up pulling about 13/14 in/lbs. Do you think that is good enough or would that be to tight? I plan on running it easy until I get the EFI dialed in. A lot of no wake until I can put a load on it. All the stuff in the upper is new. I was told I could run it any speed, just not at one speed for any length of time. How do u go about breaking in a new setup..

Thanks for you help!!! I have always been leary of digging into a drive, but now I feel confident that I can repair my own..

Tinker, it would be interesting to see how close I came with my can and spring setup.. Maybe I should grab your torque meter to double check..

Dick

Dick,

I just found out that my gimble bearings on both XR drives were going SOUTH in a hurry! I'm not sure what you call it, but the brace that holds the in-put shaft within the Stellings extension box wasn't aligned/shimmed properly when the boxes were originally installed. What this did was cause the gimble bearings to go bad....I'm thankful we caught it. We noticed it as we were installing one of the drives back on the extension box-----they were binding pretty hard all this time (50 hours on drives). New bearings will be here and installed today. One bearing tapped out real nice----the other was a pain! Tapping would NOT do it and we had to make up a special pulling tool with threaded rod to get it out properly. Anyway, the boxes are on the boat and the drives will be finished being installed today. Easy in/out motor mounts will also be made up today by Dave Wesseldyke. Everything has been moved back 10 inches to a stock Bravo installation which means I have had to shorten the drive shafts, shorten tailpipes, move hatch scoops back and re-rigg KE thermo filters from rear to front of engines, re-rigg oil coolers, re-rigg bilge pumps---actually, I went from 2 large (Attwood?) 1700gph pumps to one and more compact Rule 2000gph pump which is much smaller than the Attwood and a even smaller Rule 1100gph pump. The Attwoods are too big and bulky and require a seperate float switch which just takes up more room in the bilge. These newer Rules pumps DON'T require a seperate float switch unit which means I can rid my boat of the existing float switches. I'm also adding a pair of new KE coalesent fuel filters----I've been told that there's power in a good/correct fuel system.
Anyway Dick, glad to see you're about to be up and running---me too!

BTW, call "Doctor Dave" at 616-944-0214 and he can probably answer your questions about the Bravo One drive. He's doing a repair on one right now. Dave lives in Benton Harbor.

MR Gadget... I would personally remove .005- .010 in shims and recheck the preload. I wouldn't go over the 10in-lbs because that would be very hard on the rollers in the bearings. Keep futsing with it and don't get impatient. Sounds like you are not doing the measurement with the shaft vertical, so make sure you are considering gravity. Make sure you are measuring "running" resistance instead of the high "breakaway" resistance you get when you first start the can of pudding moving

BT

BT,
It sounds from your post that i should be checking this with the upper and lower gear set in place? And the lower removed? The manual shows doing the check with just the pinion gear set in the case alone and going for the 10in?? I left it on the tight side and assembled it.. if you think I should open it back up and redo..I will.. Sounds like a critcal adj.. I hate this learning curve..

Thanks for your help!!

Dick

Follow the book to a Tee. Just make sure the shaft you are checking preload on is vertical so the effects of gravity don't corrupt your readings. I had mine apart over the winter at least 5 times after I thought I had it... but that is a very long story. Lower unit should be removed I am sure.

BT

BT,
I went ahead and pulled it off the boat and redid the preload test.. I loosened it up and I am confident now it is close to being right. Thanks for your help!! I wouldnt mind going to a Bravo drive school to find out the mysteries of the beast. I just hope the XR gears are worth all the trouble I have gone to.. Time will tell.

Kamma,
Nice to hear your almost ready!! Any time frame as to when you will hit the water? I hope to this weekend, but tomorrow will tell the story.
So who setup your boxes to begin with anyway.. you would think they would have checked the alignment??? Well glad you caught it before it became a real problem. They usually make some serious noise when they start going bad, so you might have found it anyway..
Well good luck.. and keep your fingers crossed for me, I need a push in the right direction this year..

Thanks everyone for your help..

Dick