Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

Ok Im geting a lot here I have the big spaner nut tool I made it ,the hose clamp with the flag ,makin it tonight Im not understanding the last tool much yet .I do have a manual just never read it Im a guy you know. I guess I will break it out .

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

I also made a tool out of a coupler to hold the vert shaft to tighten nut .I built last lower and it held together .If thats good for anything?

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

The last tool is used to set the pinion hieght. Basically once the pinion is in and tight, this tool slide the lower housing in place of the carrier. While holding it tight against the shoulder to keep it sqaure with the world, which you orientate with one hole at top. The 2.450 dia will be directly under the pinion gear. With feeler gauges inserted thru the hole, you are now measuring the gap between the tools 2.450 dia and the bottom of the pinion. Thats your pinion height. That locates the pinion at the right height for the correct mesh with the drive gear. Now might be a good time to read the manual. ;)

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

us1 fountain / mr gadget,
I hooked back up with mechanic on my shaft issue.
He said that it was set up correctly when he set it up but he feels that it may of been in a bind??????
So I went over all of the numbers with him on the preload and run out and he agreed that they all sounded correct. Wasn't real sure what happened but has no problem making it right. Order another load ring and when the part comes in I'm going down with him to tear it back down to see what happened. I'll follow up when I get it back together.

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

us1fountain / mr gadget,
Heres what happened on my lower unit prop shaft play. I end up hooking up with the mechanic today and we pulled the prop shaft back out. The nut wasn't all that tight. He mentioned that he mostly worked on alphas that the bravo's never gave him any reason to work on them. So trained but not fresh in his mind???? He didn't have the bracket to place on the drive shaft to create the needed preload with the inch lbs gauge (it was being borrowed) so we just checked it with what ever resistant there was to subtract from the prop shaft resistant. There was 1/2" on that. We then replaced the load ring and slide everything into place. It took a lot to get the cover nut tight to where we generated a total of 7 to 7 1/2" lbs of resistant on the propshaft. Bent the tab up and I hope I'm ready to mount.
Anything spacial have to be done on the upper gear housing when it was disassembled and put back together other then getting all the pieces back into the right order?
The drive was blasted and painted and when the guy blasted he never covered the upper vent hole and got sand in the upper housing. Of course I had the marina tare it down and clean and replace any worm parts which he said looked in great shape, (royal purple max gear). So that is what got me to this problem.

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

Mike,
Sounds like it should be ok. The preload on the verticle shaft should have ended up right at the spec 3-5 in pds if it had the required .001 additional shim height on the upper retainer. ( The pinion height is adjusted there with shims and then the top retainer has to be reshimmed to eliminate any play) He could have bolted the bottom to the top, but left the verticle drive shaft coupler out. This would have held the shaft, shims, bearings the same as if he had the clamping plate, yet still allowed both shafts to turn w/o being engaged to the upper gear housing to get set the preload, providing he did shim the top retainer correctly. Then simply separate and reinstall the coupler.
BTW, I'm assuming he reused yr old carrier bearings, otherwise the propshaft preload is higher.

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

Wow! After reading all of the above I wonder if I'm messed up. I have twin Merc ProMax 300's with about 100 hours each. My prop shafts have in-and-out (forward-reverse) play of 1/16" or less. Side-to-side play is minimal but there is some. Normal?

Thanks, TJ

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

Not sure on outboards bravo not good (I checked my egg beater it has some play too)

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

All the Alpha drives I've seen have some in/out play, but no side/side. Other than that tid bit, never tore in to one.

Re: Bravo Prop Shaft Play
 

us1 fountain,
the original carrier bearings was used as everything looked good in the drive.