Gotta be honest. I figured most of the stories on later model XR's having failures and gear issues that caused those failures was just a lack of ability to operate. Maybe some neglect thrown in there etc.

The oil in this thing has always been "darker" than what I like but there has never been any real dirt or large pieces on the magnets. I get some powder but figured it was normal as this is the only drive I've owned with straight cut hears.

This last oil change a few days ago came with some funky oil in the bottle. It looked as if the oil in the bottom of the bottle had a "jello" type texture to it.

Drained the bottle and rinsed along with flushing the line out.

Thought, what the heck - pull the caps off the drive and do a quick visual. My pictures are not very good but there is one particular tooth where the crack is on the center edge. It's getting ready to let go and I caught this before I refilled it and went to the bay.

Pretty disheartening. I was under the impression that with a very light boat like mine and pumping out 600 HP best case, this XR "should" be bullet proof for my application. I was wrong.

It has barely 100 hours of run time. During which, I've changed the oil 4 times.

It hasn't seen any abuse like my earlier drives did ( I was hard on'em). No burnt oil and no stink so no sign of heat anywhere (nothing discolored).

So the question I have is this: Do I buy another set of gears with a huge price tag for what they are and wait for it to happen again?

Do I replace the gear set and sell the drive? And if so, what should I replace it with?

Now, those posts from Gadgets are all coming back to me and unless I want to just walk away from it, there really isn't an "easy" clear choice.

Sux.

You got off easy !!!!!!!!!!! Usually you get to buy a complete upper , and you only need a gear set . One of murc's greatest money makers I'm sure . Been there done that !

My opinion is to replace the XR gears with X gears. Properly setup and driven with respect, it will out live the XR at your power level in my opinion.

Dick

Mr gadgets, what's the difference between the X gears and std bravo gears?

Steel tower, thicker floor. Keeps it from pushing the floor out of the driven gear.

$1,100 for a 3 piece gearset tends to tilt the stomach though..

and this goes back to my previous comment not having a very easy or clear choice...

Thanks for your emails !

So when yours broke did you also replace the lower gears? I've lost enough "hard" metal that some of it may be trapped in bearings so it needs to fully come apart. Those little thrust bearings, needle bearings and stuff tends to hold dirt.

I feel your pain ... had to replace both XR gear sets last spring. I change the oil every 10 hours . Amsoil 75-110 works best for me.
It looks like your gears are trashed after just 100 hrs ...

Just so we're clear, if I had run the boat this summer with typical use I would not have made it through SIX MONTHS. Actually, at 300 + hours a year even less...

Unbelievable really.



The middle picture in the top row looks like a really deep wear pattern in the mesh to me.