I had my 1990 bravo one upper rebuilt this spring. Drive had 550+ hours on it worked fine but internals were showing wear and the drive had never been apart according to rebuilder. Drive lasted 5 minutes after rebuild before it was stuck in forward gear and full of aluminum shavings. Upon teardown it was discovered that the round aluminum tower that sticks up from the floor inside the upper is destroyed. Anybody have any idea what might cause this? Rebuilder says case is not straight. I find it hard to believe there was a problem with the case since it already had over 550 hours on it and never apart according to him. Thanks for any input.

I know stuff happens, but I think it is hard to believe that drive let loose just after someone rebuilt it. Expecially with 550 hrs & no problems. I find it hard even if you are putting massive HP to drive that it would not hold up more that 5 minutes. My guess is they did not put it back together correctly.

My drive broke on my boat at 59 hr's , 3 days out of warranty.Had to replace the upper drive on a bravo 1 $5800.00 cdn.My drive is at mercury being looked at right now to see if they will cover it under warranty.They said I abused the drive by jumping waves without even looking at it when it was at the dealer.Hopefully they will do something or I will be buying volvo penta next time.

That sounds pretty suspicious. It also sounds common unfortunately too. I think your hunch is correct.

It's awful hard to ignore the 550 hrs that predated it's 5 minute rebuild.....

Bill1134

I was on the other side, my drive went out 8 days before my warrenty was up. Merc covered it, but took over 6 weeks to send parts to dealer. I was pretty pissed considering it was a new boat less than 1 yr and in the middle of July.

Just my opinion, if its not broken don't fix it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will

That's probably the most common area that fails in bravos. I've seen a dozen with that exact failure. Tough to say if the rebuilder did anything wrong. My guess is that he missed some cracks in the upper internals. I dont know of may mechanics that will magnaflux the parts though anyway. If there was a warranty on his rebuild, take it back. If not, maybe he'll work with you on a new one. The best course of action otherwise is to buy a whole new drive. I bought one from a sellers ad in the back of Powerboat last year that charged only $3500 for a complete new drive.
Gary

Bill who worked on it???I think he's hosing you bad!!!!I think he should stand behind his work......or you can shove his work up his a$$!!!!my .02

BGIII, I do some drive work down here in VA. I would tend to agree that something was not installed correctly. Though I have seen similar situations. Tear it down and check the the large Timken bearings on the input shaft and make sure that they were replaced with new ones. Since the upper gears cannot be shimmed, reseting the rolling torque on bearings with excessive wear could cause the gears to be misasligned, or he could have just forgot to torque things properly.