Xr Drives
 

How Can Someone Tell The Diff. Of A Standard Bravo And An Xr. The Reason Is That The Drives Have Be Painted Red And They Do Have The Xr Stickers. The Drives Were Painted By Mercury.thanks

Re: Xr Drives
 

larger or heavy duty u-joint assy.

Re: Xr Drives
 

Those two statements are correct for the XR and XZ. The upper gears is what you need to look at. The SN will tell you unless someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Re: Xr Drives
 

Pull the top covers and look for gears with big ole teeth... there are pics of them all over the net..

Re: Xr Drives
 

www.go-fast.com/mercruiser_bravo_sterndrives.htm

Check out the site above for an explanation of Bravo Outdrive differences.

Thanks to Mbam for providing this information.

Re: Xr Drives
 

Bravo, XR, ZR, IXR....they're all going to break on you, so what's the diff?

Re: Xr Drives
 

The carrier in the Xr, (looking behind the prop shaft) is blue all others are not.

Re: Xr Drives
 

Beats sailing.

Re: Xr Drives
 

Not true. I have XZ drives, and mine are blue!

Re: Xr Drives
 

Sailing is like being towed in after your drive breaks.. but I would rather get the tow..

Re: Xr Drives
 

Ok, so now I'm confused. I am buying a boat with 525EFIs and it has XZ's instead of XR's any concerns or issues? Anyone know if I can put the XR sportmaster lower unit on the XZ's?????

Re: Xr Drives
 

yes you can put a sportmaster lower on a x or xz drive see ya

Re: Xr Drives
 

Thanks guys!

BTW, which has the better upper gear set, the XR or XZ?

Re: Xr Drives
 

xr has straght cut net forged upper gears. xz has angle cut near net forged gears. i run an xz behind 945 hp. easy out of the hole and in and out of the water. the xz is rated at 525hp and the xr 575hp. the xz is a little more quiet then the xr due to the angle cut gears.