Bravo 1 broke
On my last run of the season, I lost forward on my port side Bravo 1. Reverse works fine. In forward at idle it seems to be slipping because it feels like the prop spins for a second then it doesn't, then it spins, then it doesn't. And as soon as I give it any throttle, the engine just revs up with out the prop spinning.
On the trailer the prop spins freely backwards but when you spin it forward, I can feel something grinding. Does it sound like the forward gear or the cone clutch? Is it cheaper to have rebuilt or buy a different bravo upper? At least it was my last run not my first run of the season. THanks, I appreciate any input. |
Prolly broke the floor out of the gear, or partially broke the top cap boss. Don't run it any more.
Pull the back plate off and take a look. Then pull the top cap off. If the lube isn't full of junk and the parts are not missing a bunch of little pieces, you can just replace the parts yourself. Use new upper bearings and upgrade to a billet top cap. |
I pulled the top cap off and found metal shavings and a couple of pieces that look like a washer about an inch in diameter. The top gear is very sloppy and moves side to side until it hits the housing. Is this what you mean when the floor of the gear is broke?
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Is the prop on the port drive
L/H rotation ? If so, the top gear is the forward gear. The floor of the gear is just below the female portion of the cone on the gear. If you have a R/H rotation prop on that drive, you need to look at the bottom gear. jt |
jt29olhp500s
Its is a R/H prop. so it would be the bottom gear. Is the top cap the only thing that keeps the top gear centered? It just doesn't seem right being so sloppy. How do inspect the bottom gear. Can I take off the bracket for my steering and tie bar or do I take the top gear out. If I have to take gear out how does it come out. Bear with me I have never taken a drive apart before. |
You need to pull the drive and remove the
input (pinion) gear assy. to get to the lower gear. jt |
Top cap is the only thing that keeps the top gear centered. Thats why it is important to upgrade to a stronger top cap with increased power.
You can pull the rear cover and see the bottom gear okay. Drive has to come off of the boat to get the pinion assy out. Shavings mean you will need to flush the entire drive until it is clean. Easier to do this in pieces (remove the lower and flush separately). Go grab a service manual (Merc, Clymer, etc..). |
mcollinstn,
By removing the the top cap and back cap can you remove the upper gear and cone clutch assy without removing the pinion gear assy? Are any special tools needed to take it down to this point? Looking at the Merc parts breakdown it appears there is a 2 piece keeper that is located above a "collar". Anything special needed here to remove. Thanks, Rick |
I pulled the drive today and pulled the pinion gear pinion gear out and the gear set and found that the floor of the forward gear did break as well as the clutch cone.
what do I use to flush out the drive to make sure all of the metal fragments and shavings are cleaned out? |
Kerosene or diesel fuel.
over and over and over again... (hint: strain the kerosene thru a towel and you can keep using it over and over instead of goin thru 15 gallons of it) |
jt and mcollinstn
Thanks for the help When I get the new gear set I should be running fairly quickly. It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. |
Here's a tip if it ever breaks away from port:
I did that once 1/2 way between Marathon and K West. Thank goodness my buddy thought of this:
Since you had reverse and blew out forward, take the props off (I had to do this in 4'ers - which was not fun!), and switch them. This will enable you to put your shifters in reverse and now go forward. Better said... If your props "were" spinning out -- switching them causes them to spin "in" - so now what was reverse is now forward. Hope this helps! It got me to land on both motors before dark. It's never fun limping back on one motor! |
Joe
Good idea in your situation, I was only about 2 miles from the boat landing so idling back on one motors no big deal. I probably wouldn't recommend running the drive if you don't have to because I had a lot of metal pieces floating around in there and could probably cause even more damage. One more question When I drained the gear lube it was very black and smelled terrible. I can be honest that I don't baby my boat so I am assuming running it hard broke the drive and when the drive went it did this to the gear lube or is it the other way, I neglected the gear lube too long and that caused the drive to go? |
Blowing the floor out of a gear is "usually" from overstress, but increased drive friction from overheated and contaminated lube can raise the stress level on the parts, too.
I've broken Bravos by breaking the floors out AND by breaking the top cap, both on different occasions. This with 390hp 502's. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but keeping the lube fresh and cool is a key to Bravo life. Shame on you. |
Take a good look at your propshaft and vertical driveshaft for twisted splines. Landing the boat with the inertia of the rotating mass is very much like launching a drag car with sticky tires or worse. Something has to give and many times the driven gear is only part of the problem!
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