A friend is switching from his standard Bravo to a Bravo X drive. It looks like if he has the pre-1998 bearing (879194A02) he will need to switch to the new style bearing (879194A01) to allow room for the larger u-joints?

His boat is a 1996 but I want to make sure the newer style wasn't used as a replacement before he bought the boat. Is there a way to identify the two by looking at the bearing while still in the gimbal housing?

Thanks.

put both drives side by side. measure yoke where they go into gimball bearing...

What year x drive? The new ones use same smaller u joints as bravo. Merc found larger u joints were not any better. Older x will have them and if drive is out might as well change to new gimbal anyway.

We don't have the new drive yet so we can't measure anything.

Not sure of the year but it is a sweptback with a finned top which I believe was put on the newer X drives.

The new bearing will have a red or white dot visible.