rbtnt

Has anyone had a problem with excessive wear on their XR pinion gears? My local mechanic took both of my XR uppers apart last week to install the new seal/retainer assemblys and found the pinion gears on both drives had excessive wear on the gear surface. He said the drive gears do not look bad, so we are just going to flip them over when we put in the new pinions and bearings. The new pinion gears are supposed to have a different surface on them.

The boat is an Eliminator 28 Daytona that weighs 6K - 6.5K lbs and the engines are N/A 625hp. The drives have billet water cooled caps with a constant water source and do not show any signs of overheating. The drives only have 80 hrs and two inland lake/river poker runs on them. The rest of the time the boat is on smooth rivers (no air time at all). We normally cruise around at 3500 - 4000 rpm and maybe 1 or 2 blasts each day. The boat can only be eased up on plan, so there are no hole shots and the air time has been very limited. I put 60 hrs on standard Bravos last year without any problems. The gear lube was changed every 25 hours.

I haven't seen the gears yet, so I can't provide any detailed info or pictures. The mechanic said there aren't any cracks or breaks, they are just worn down. I am picking the gears up Monday to take a look for myself and to have a friend who is an expert in metal treatment, take a look at them.

So, back to the first sentence, has anyone seen this happen or have any ideas? I would think that if there was a production run problem, more of you that run heavier boats in bigger water, would have the same problem.

Thanks

rbtnt

Turbojack

I think you need to talk to Back4more. I think he had his checked out last year & was concerned about them. Do a search & you will find the thread where he was asking the same question.

rbtnt

Turbojack,

Thanks for the info. I'll do a search on Back4more's posts. I remember reading about drives breaking on a triple Black Thunder, I'm going to search for that thread too.

Mr Gadgets

rbtnt
I had my standard bravo upgraded to XR gears and after 50 or so hours of runing I found the same thing!! I had heard of someone else having the same problem.. do a search of XR and see what comes up. This was late this summer that it was posted, had pics of the gears also. Mine was worn the same way. I am going to flip my gears and replace the pinion. I am hoping that they had a bad run and that is a problem solved.
My drive was so loaded with metal that it I have to replace all the bearings and the lower gears also. If you want I can email a pic of my gear and you can compare, if you can find that thread..
Good luck!!

Dick

rbtnt

Mr Gadgets,

Thanks for the info. I couldn't search on XR, but I did on gears, Bravo and Gadgets and didn't find the thread with pictures. Back4more had the same pinion gear problem in his IMCOs and from what I read, it sounded like they used Merc gears. One message also said that one of his gears wasn't heat treated properely, but I couldn't figure out which gear they were talking about.

After reading alot of the threads, it looks like there might have been a problem with some of the pinion gears from the factory. I should have some more answers next week when I have my gears checked out.

Here you able to find a deal on the bearings?

rbtnt

merlin540

thats why i went with xz gears. so far so good. i took mine apart and no signs of trouble with 125 hrs of beating them to death. 970 hp twins on bravos in a cat. i run hard

rbtnt

Thanks merlin,

We know how easy you run your stuff. When can we see pictures of the 32?

Merry Christmas to you, wife and kids.

Randy

Mr Gadgets

rbtnt
I got a good deal on Merc Parts from Sterndrivespec. He has treated me right on parts and tools for my project!!

I hooked up with Dock Holiday and he sells bearings. There are quite a few bearings that you can get direct from a bearing supply house and save a few bucks. Some are propriatary and you have to get them from Merc. The only ones not available at this time, as far as I know, are the bearings in the forward and reverse XR gears. But people are working on that. You can get the pinion gear seperate, but inorder to replace the bearings in the other gears they want you to buy new forward and reverse gears. Now on the standard gears they offer the bearings. Not sure what Merc is thinking..except.. $$$$$$$..

I think the thread I was thinking of was Back4more.. with his Imco's.. his original thread had the pictures.

Hope this helps..

Dick

BOSSMAN

rbtnt, How long has xr drives been out? I have a new boat ordered with xr drives and now you have me wondering. Is this a warranty issue? I hope so.

Rich

rbtnt

My new XR uppers came from Sterndrivespec and I also bought some other outdrives from him. He was great to deal with and delivered exactly what and when he promised.

I have a friend I think can get bearings from a local wholesaler with the exception of two bearings.

Randy