Bravo U-Joints -

[txriverrat2001]

I really could use some help if you've ran into this before - I've got a Bravo III that we replaced the upper half on a year or so ago (Bought it at Victory Marine) after the owner mistakenly slammed her from reverse to forward at about 2000 RPM - of course the clutch stuck like hell so he decided to just get another upper - we'd rebuild the stuck one later and have a spare.

Been running the replacement upper for a year - all is well - then noticed a rattlin noise when turning hard right or left - gimbal, possible u-joints etc...

Yank both drives and sure enough the gimbal brg's are bad and the u-joints have a rough "spot" - decide to do it all as we only have it on the trailer once a year.

So last night I'm getting ready to build the input shafts with the new u-joints and discover the ones on the "replacement" drive are smaller - these have inside clips BTW - not the new outside that no one understands why they send all the different clips -

I'm having HELL finding this u-joint. It's smaller than the good ole' inside clip one they've used for yrs and yrs - and someone said it may be an X Drive upper??? Does the X Drive upper have the same input retaining nut like a BIII???

HELP!!!

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

There a few generations of cross bearings. The X and the XR are larger than the standard. The original should have a serial number on it to look up the proper joints.

[txriverrat2001]

the upper drive we got from Victory doesn't have a serial # on it......

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

does it have the old style cover nut or the new one with holes?

The old style shows one part number

The newer could be two different ones. Either the Meritor or GKN

The newest have the GKN for X and XR

http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show_Pictures3.asp?dnbr=891748&ivar=images/COMMON/19245.png&inbr=10269&bnbr=110&bdesc=Universal+Joint%2FShifter+Components(X-Drive)

[txriverrat2001]

It has the old style cover nut - not like an XR ...

And $150 each??? WTF???

So the million dollar question was can I convert this to an "old" style?? I've been building drives all my life - never ran across this - Can I exchange the yoke and reset the bearing pack?? I have enough of the middle sections laying around.....

I was talking to another tech who said if it's not the case where the shimming is stamped on the back it's a ***** to set up not like the old school where you set the brg load and run with it -

Thoughts??????

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

It says NLA you need to buy the whole assy.

http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show_Pictures3.asp?dnbr=880951002&ivar=images/COMMON/26406.png&inbr=11210&bnbr=100&bdesc=Universal+Joint+and+Shift+Components

[txriverrat2001]

Saw that - was hoping to go back with the old style which I've got plenty of - but oh well.....


frikkin Mercruiser .....

I'm pretty sure way back when one of Merc's engineers caught a mechanic bangin his wife......

[Mr Gadgets]

txriverrat,
the old style input shaft will fit. The splines on the yoke are the same for the old and new input shafts. There are still the two different sizes of splines on the yoke. The small one fits the B1 gears and the large one fits the XR gears.
So if you have a B1 you can sub the old style input shaft that has the available ujoints. Same with the XR input shaft. But when you go backwards with the XR shaft, the ujoints are larger than the newer (metric) ujoints, so you need to make sure you have the trim limit spacers and the new gimbal bearings and the bellows retainer ring is changed to give clearance for the larger, old style XR ujoints.

Hope this makes sense.
If you have the B1, just take out the new style input shaft and replace it with the old style.. set up your preload the same and you will be good to go..

Dick
PS you are right about that engineers wife.. darn shame isn't it!!