are these drives any good??? do they use a tranny?? what tranny??? are transmissions any good??? thank you all chris

They are a good drive, and require a transmission. Been around for 30 plus years. How much hp are you running? A BAM 9 plate Cyborg is good for 850 hp (advertised), or a Huber transmission. As long as the transmission is rated for the hp then you should be good, more transmission plates/clutch discs.

They are great drives but Mercruiser discontinued them a number of years ago so some of the parts are getting scarce. Mercruiser followed up the 3 with a SSM3A which had larger prop shafts and some other beefier parts. The SSM3A was discontinued a few years back as well. There are lots of these drives out there and they are very good drives, but again some of the parts can become a challenge.

By the way SSM4's were only built for about 18 months, so they are very difficult to find parts for.

SSM5's were a shortened version of the SSM3A so the bulk of the parts are the same as SSM3A's.

Barry

I have about 10 of these and a bunch of parts, NEW and used !!!!

Not a problem !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also allot of #4 and 5 stuff !!!!

Don't worry Chris ,,i got u covered !

We have 3A's on our Top Gun. Been great drives!! With only the 600 HP we have going to them, no problems when I "miss" a launch here and there

I've heard they have the basic inards of the #6 drive and were commonly refered to as baby 6's.

I wouldn't worry about parts....They'll be parts around longer than you'll own the boat most likely.