Bravo Drive - No Forward
 

Just winterized the Fountain and decided to take my family for a ride in the deckboat. Rinker Flotilla with 5.7/Bravo III. Going down the lake at 3000 rpm and the thing revs up and stops going forward. Dink around with it and find that it will go in reverse and back up but does not even begin to go in forward. Raise the lower unit and see that the props are turning (forward) but when you give it the gas it just revs up the engine. Shut it down and grap the props and it acts like it is in gear. Had to tow it 8 miles home, put it on the lift and now it does not even turn the props in forward (engine running). Has any one ever replaced the clutch assembly in a Bravo drive? What about the upper gear set? Looks like it is fairly simple. What else could be causing this to happen. Is it possible that the shifter assembly has broken?.
No clunking or grinding noises, just does not go in gear. My first mate is ticked off, wanted to do some fall foilage cruising this fall.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Helmwurst

:rolleyes: You may want to check the drive coupler before tearing down your bravo. Just look over the engine, when idling the drive input shaft should be turning always..... I hope thats your problem, easy fix & inexpensive.:)

I have had two similar experiances. Once it was the shift linkage back at the engine that was out of adjustment and once it was the cladding on the shift wire from the engine down to the drive that was broken between the transom assembly and the drive.Worth a look

Ditto for me on the cladding on the shift wire. Had reverse but no forward. Made docking fun:D

Somehow, mine got worn away rubbing against the coupling.

Me too on the out of adjustment shift cable. And then there was once when the mechanic used an incompatible shift fork with the wrong clutch..........

The part that is wierd is that it happened at speed. When producing thrust, the torque of the upper gear drives the clutch into it. A maladjusted cable shouldn't cause this I wouldn't think.

I'm with Mats. 3 weeks ago my Bravo got stuck in reverse. Drive shift cable housing broke at the drive.
Sierra has a kit with cable, clamps and bellows for around $100

:( :( :(
hope smthning simple happened and you fix it soon without spending 2 much$$

Sounds like you could have broken the floor out of the forward gear. I did this on my fountain. It would go in reverse but not forward. Good luck

check outer shift cable housing at the outdrive, could be broken. yours is doing what mine did and thats what it was

Same thing 2 weeks ago.. shift cable hsg etc. but pull drive because cause was a gasket in drive out of place allowed water
to get in shift mechanism in drive making hard to shift and then broke cable ..

step one - see if the imput shaft is turning when you put the drive in forward. (Shaft between engine flywheel into transom plate) If it is turning at engine speed it is ok. The coupler is usually damaged from wave jumping (deckboat???) or alignment issues. Quick and Easy

step two - check the cable really well. They rub on things near the transom plate. If it appears OK check the cable adjustment. Quick and Easy

step three - pull off the bravo drive and try and shift it by hand while turning the prop - and U joint. If it shifts and turns by hand - keep looking for problems inside the boat. Most likely a cable / shifter issue.

Steve

Thanks everyone for the advice. Going down to the Lake on Friday eve and will start checking things out on Saturday. Couple comments: Boat shifts just fine going into reverse, props turn and backs up like normal. Move the shifter to nuetral, no problems nice and smooth. Push it into forward and nothing. I am hoping for a shifter problem, but my gut feeling is gear floor or clutch. I will post results of Saturdays work when I get back.

Thanks again....
Helmwurst

bolt a left hand prop on that bad boy and you will go forward,sorry not what you want to hear but i suspect it is the cone clutch.

Not good news so far. Pulled off the drive on Sat and drained the oil. Looks bad, smells bad. Guy I bought boat from was ripped off by another shady dealer! Lube probably has not been changed the last two times they said they changed it! Any way, bottom plug had a little more than normal filings on it, the top plug had enough crap on it that when you pulled it out some of the filings fell off back into the drive! Pulled top and back covers off and did not see any broken gears or major damage. Clutch engages both ways but slip when you hols the drive shaft and turn the prop. Will not know the extent of the other damage to the bearings and gears etc until I tear it all the way down. Needless to say, trust who you let perform any service on your rig. I personally know the guy I bought this from and he was ripped off by a dealer who does not give a rats a## about who he screws! I am calling him today to be shure he does not take his new boat to this guy for service.

As long as it's apart rebuild the whole unit. What year is the drive? pre-1998 is notorious for drive floor breaking, though unusual with a small block. New replacement gearset is much better. Some of that trash could get in the lower but I hope not as the Bravo three is a completely different animal from other Bravo's, many more parts obviously. I agree with checking the coupling and cable first. Bummer about the gears! That oil can get old and ugly looking fast when the gears puke. I have never seen the actual clutch itself break, usually the floor and on rare occasions the upper clutch/drive shaft even seen the gear(friction cone) separate once. Easy fix inexpensive??? Sounds like close couple unit. If it was drive coupler you would have to pull the motor to get to it. Good luck to you.

Helmwurst

I found some metalic oil in my drive and I just replaced it.. then it attempted to lock up.. the prop shaft was hard to turn. When I tore it down.. every bearing has excessive wear on it. So I will rebuild it myself. Tired of trusting the pros... Pull it down and check it all over..

Good luck!!

Dick

Aluminum shavings or steel Mr. Gadgets? Check the housing well the upper is rather "consumable". Do you have std pre or post '98 or XR/XZ? It's not so much the skill of the Mechanic as it is the desire to do it right. You can probably to it yourself, take your time.

Who is the dealer? I assume it is a LOTO dealer?

rhino,
I didnt mag check it.. but I do see where the gears are worn and the bearings have that not shiny look.. on the races. The drive started life around 94 or so.. The upper case was replaced, then a SS tower installed, Imco extreme gears, then Diesel gears were installed when the Imco's failed after 12hrs/no power applied. Then I had XR gears installed in the case. I see no evidence of wear on any of the aluminum case. Upper or lower.
I will put it back together with my careful eye on setup and see what happens. Thanks for your help..

Dick

As far as wear on the case I mean the thrust washers pushing up aluminum as they begin an elliptical path. I must mention I have very little experience with after market parts and zero in modifying a std housing to accept non standard gears. XR gears installed? Straight cut 19/16 XR gears in an aluminum tower housing modified to accept steel tower? I have no knowledge of an XR drive gear being built to fit the L15 spline arrangement of std units. The X and XR/XZ units use the larger L19 (splines) arrangement input stub yokes. Are you using the complete input shaft asm. to accomplish this? I suppose that could be possible, don't forget to install newer gimbal bearing and bellows retaining sleeve if that is what you used. They are nessecary for clearance of the larger u-joint asm. as would be mods. of the retainer nut. I am very curious about what you have there.

rhino,
The case started life as a regular Bravo. I had a SS tower installed and Imco gears and shafts. The gears failed, so I had Merc Diesel gears installed, then the XR's. The input yoke is welded to a large spine to accept the XR pinion gear. That way the case is thicker where the input retainer nut is (stronger). I talked to Billet Marine and he makes a yoke with the small ujoint and large shaft for the XR. So I may replace the welded one. Max Works also is working on such a piece. Max also has a trick seal retainer that uses a double lip seal. Not sure if that is necessary. But the Merc seal fix for the XR wont fit my case.
At some point this summer the pinion bearing in the lower broke. I found a piece of the bearing race wedged between the bearing and the pinion gear. It is a special caged bearing from Imco and uses a different size sleeve on the vertical shaft. I have been told I can replace that sleeve and use the Merc bearing. If not, I will use the same type of bearing.
Yes it will be a learning experience, but it has run for 50hrs this season. So the parts fit, I just have to make sure the setup is correct.
I received some tools tonite from the Big Brown truck and I am hoping to remove the bearings so I can get part numbers off them. I will hook up with the member in the other thread that said he could do a deal on bearings..
I will keep you posted as to my progress. Thanks again for your help..

Dick

Very interesting, I had no idea they made a special yoke. The Merc pinion bearing number is 31-86754T. I kind of like the caged after market one though it runs a bit hotter do to having fewer rollers. i think just using 680 loc-tite and get rid of that dfamn bore-tite is the way to go. MWM does make some cool stuff though some of it is overkill. The Merc pinion bearing can be a real BEAR to remove ,use the guide and plenty of heat. It easy to break out the bottom of bearing. Why the hell is that race so thin??