Well the day has come. My XZ lived 7 years and 900 plus hours behind various power from stock 502 to 625 HP blower motor. Boat is now back to HP500 but I am seeing some metal flakes on my magnets. If I clean them off and run it for an hour or two metal comes back to magnet. Looks like gear face material.

I am hearing a grinding/rumble but only in forward gear, does not do it in reverse. At an idle turning side to side while trimming up or down does not change it so I am not hearing the gimbal bearing.

Just curious if this sounds like I am due for uppers or a full rebuild and about how much am I looking at for this? I found these guys in the classified
http://www.allamericandriveservice.com/Outdrives.html
anyone have any experience with them?
Probably best to fix this before it scatters as less part would be used or is everything replaced anyway?

Uppers are probably smoked. FIX IT NOW before you take the case with it.

$4 grand will get you a merc rebuilt upper with a 1 year warranty