What's the REAL story with Bravo XR's?

[BraceYourself]

I never aired mine out. In all seriousness I think half the **** in the marine biz is engineered to last the warranty period and then break. Repeat biz. What benefit is there to them making something last forever. Boating is such a small industry and requires people with extra money to blow.

[J.T.]

I never had a drive problem with any of my boats
til I got the last boat w/XR's.

(The boat does have a high X, stellings boxes and maximus props)

Both sides, mainly upper gear issues.

Teeth breaking off( and junking out a upper case), teeth chunking out,
gear developing a crack and shearing cone off of gear.( on a brand new complete upper)

I even had a couple sets cyro treated, 1 side still looks great,
the other side started chunking out after 1 season.

Knock on wood, I havent had a upper take a dump in a couple
of seasons, but I did manage to break a propshaft at the shootout
( which I'll take the blame for) this year.

From my experiences it seems like it's a 50-50 chance on getting a good set.

When they're good, they're good, when they're bad,
they show their colors rather quicky.

[bulletbob]

With the Bravo failure my opinion is poor quality control and like someone else stated in an earlier post the parts are only built to last a certian number of hours.$$$$ for Merc.

[Wrinkleface]

I never aired mine out.

Obviously!!!!

[imco offshore]

Peter,,with the torque of your motors,,, the hull ,,,,the weight,,,the props,,,ect,,,,your finding the weakest link,,,please,,,, sell your xr,s and upgrade your system to a pair of IMCO SC.s or better yet,,SCX,S ,, they will bolt right on...let me know if I can help you get them.,,

[Outdrive Man]

peter,,with the torque of your motors,,, the hull ,,,,the weight,,,the props,,,ect,,,,your finding the weakest link,,,please,,,, sell your xr,s and upgrade your system to a pair of imco sc.s or better yet,,scx,s ,, they will bolt right on...let me know if i can help you get them.,,

+1

[PatriYacht]

Mercury gears are absolute crap. They use cheap steel with no alloy content so that it forms easily in their net forging process. Then they carburize it and heat treat it to make it hard. Also known as case hardening. That leaves it hard about .020 thick and very soft under that. Material imperfections cause whole teeth to break off at random usually destroying the upper case. I have tried to get gears made from better steel but the problem is they have that cone attached for the cone clutch. To do it one piece is very difficult and to do it 2 pieces welded together requires expensive tooling. One of these days we'll get it figured out.

[Tomas Wallin]

The top gear always is the one that breaks, but I haven't had a top cap blow off.

As far as balancing the boat goes. If it got balanced any better I could haul it on a 1" piece of flat iron. That & I don't fly the boat like some guys do. I do agree that Bravo life is mostly in the operator's throttle hand.

I believe I have a bad case on that side. It measured out of tolerance last time it was apart so I replaced it & it went an entire season without failure.

If the drive that breaks is the one that turns left it might be because of the excessive oil temp in the upper from the load of the top bearing?

Do you have drive showers?!

[Bad Idea Baja]

If the drive that breaks is the one that turns left it might be because of the excessive oil temp in the upper from the load of the top bearing?

Do you have drive showers?!

They are IMCO SC's. They have integrated drive showers.

[LAKE EFFECT]

They are IMCO SC's. They have integrated drive showers.

Early IMCO SC's? What kind of top cap? Left drive uses the upper gear as stated, early IMCO's modified the caps for use with 7/16 studs over the 3/8 bolts that normally holds them down but they did nothing with the top cap bearing towers. I had a set of 2000 SC's that came with the stock Bravo top caps (aluminum towers).

I've since sold them and went to XR's, but I did not use the IMCO modified caps, I put 80 or so hrs on them with MAX Machines billet upper caps which use a steel tower. The better cap uses the same principal as putting the steel tower in the case for the lower gear(right rotation).

I dont know what IMCO did in there later SC drives, but I would hope they put better caps on them. If they are newer drives, sounds like you need to talk to IMCO..

Good Luck

LE

[Bad Idea Baja]

Early IMCO SC's? What kind of top cap? Left drive uses the upper gear as stated, early IMCO's modified the caps for use with 7/16 studs over the 3/8 bolts that normally holds them down but they did nothing with the top cap bearing towers. I had a set of 2000 SC's that came with the stock Bravo top caps (aluminum towers).

I've since sold them and went to XR's, but I did not use the IMCO modified caps, I put 80 or so hrs on them with MAX Machines billet upper caps which use a steel tower. The better cap uses the same principal as putting the steel tower in the case for the lower gear(right rotation).

I dont know what IMCO did in there later SC drives, but I would hope they put better caps on them. If they are newer drives, sounds like you need to talk to IMCO..

Good Luck

LE

They are the good ones.

[LAKE EFFECT]

Thanks for the "driving lessons" but that's not what I'm looking for.
I'm looking for some technical input. I have a 1994 Std Bravo and the boat been hell and back with no drive issues. Raced back in the 80's and I don't do the hole shots so it's not driving lessons I'm interested in. I been using the sticks for over 3 decades, but I appreciate the comments.
The issues is why so manny upper drivshafts show wear from the "pin gear".
Is it the pin gear problem or the shaft. Whatever it is, shouldn't Merc do something about it? due to it's a common and frequent issue. Standard Bravos don't seem to have this.

I'm a little confused?? You started the thread saying pin bearing, then started calling the part a pin gear?

You are talking about the upper cap needle bearing that supports the upper part of the clutch shaft right? part #31-843240.

I put on a set of early XR's that came with the std Bravo cap, not the later cap that was redesigned(fin cap). I put on my Max Machine caps from my old drives. These caps use a better and taller bearing, that uses more of the bearing surface of the shaft. I plan on some spring drive maint. pretty soon and will look for any goofy wear on my current clutchshafts, but maybe a better bearing or cap may be in order to ease your mind.

I'm more pissed at Merc with their gear sets. Not only did they raise the price into the atmosphere, but the quality went down the tubes. As mentioned in this thread and on a couple others, the newer gears(3 or so yrs old and newer) no longer wear out and start to pit(as a gear should) but crack and loose teeth, which can destroy a case. IMO thats what Merc should be investigating.

Good Luck,

LE

[LAKE EFFECT]

They are the good ones.

You shouldnt be going thru drives then. Your boat is not that heavy and your HP s in the range of those drives. That just sucks.. What has IMCO said?

LE

[Bad Idea Baja]

You shouldnt be going thru drives then. Your boat is not that heavy and your HP s in the range of those drives. That just sucks.. What has IMCO said?

LE

"Tough sh!t. Where would you like your new gear sets shipped?"

Well, that's how I feel anyway. Dave has been really good to us & it is in no way a IMCO problem. They use Merc gears so they are just selling what they are sold.
I honestly think it was a bad case. I'll know if I break another one this year.

[LAKE EFFECT]

"Tough sh!t. Where would you like your new gear sets shipped?"

Well, that's how I feel anyway. Dave has been really good to us.
I honestly think it was a bad case. I'll know if I break another one this year.

New case for this year then?

LE

[Bad Idea Baja]

New case for this year then?

LE

Yup. 1/2 season on it already, but they were really, really easy hours.

[J.T.]

I'm more pissed at Merc with their gear sets. Not only did they raise the price into the atmosphere, but the quality went down the tubes. As mentioned in this thread and on a couple others, the newer gears(3 or so yrs old and newer) no longer wear out and start to pit(as a gear should) but crack and loose teeth, which can destroy a case. IMO thats what Merc should be investigating.

Good Luck,

LE

+ 1


My experience with these crappy gears goes back to 2005.

When a tooth breaks off and wedges between teeth, it
makes a hell of a noise


I'm to the point now, that if another set fails, I'm considering
replacing them both with X gears.

I've seen many a boat that is heavier and more powerful than
mine run regular helical gears and get better life out of them
than what I'm getting with the XR's.

[BraceYourself]

Mine were older drives. So you may be on to something with the way they're making new ones.

Would make you sick to think of new drives being weak compared to what was made in years past.

[Bad Idea Baja]

Mine were older drives. So you may be on to something with the way they're making new ones.

Would make you sick to think of new drives being weak compared to what was made in years past.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit if they were made in China now.

[HaxbySpeed]

Merc has a long history of making changes to save money. Sometimes it works out, a lot of times it doesn't and they go back to the original. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the new gears are being made somewhere else or with a new process..