articfriends

The issue is you no longer use the factory spacer in the lower other then for set-up as the retainer takes it place,their tower retainer is machined pretty accurate as I measured it with a depth mike going acrossed it and got exactly .250 sticking out. The big problem I ran into was I wanted to try a drive spacer a few years ago,it showed up on friday as I was was just about ready to leave for the weekend and I decided to just slap it on before I left. So after I hurried and drained my new synthetic gear lube into a dirty container,pulled all the studs and prepped the drive for the spacer I discovered/realized the fact that the drive spacer has to be machined with a hole .250 deep and the same dia as the lower casing for a upper wiith a max worx tower to fit on it. So I put it back together the way it was,got the spacer modified locally for 75$ and tried it later,it was just another 3 hours of my life wasted in frustration and some oil,Smitty

articfriends

When I first converted my drive to the max worx stuff thats what I ran into too,a local shop said they could bore/modify the upper any way I needed it for the tower until they actually saw whats involved,I ended up having to send the upper housing to them to have it bored out. I might be incorrect but I think one of the advantages to the max worx tower is they can take a upper housing that has pretty badly damaged tower,bore it out for their full length tower and salvage the upper. they use a counter sunk screw in the flange below the actual bearing race race to help keep it from moving and keep it located but the clamping force when the bottom retainer is tightened down really holds it in place too,Smitty

Mr Gadgets

US1,
I install a tower that goes 2" deep with threads and the flange is counter bored to help with stability. It is half the cost of the Max Works.. Well it used to be not sure what Max is getting for their modification.

Mr Gadgets

US1,

Yes the supplement #28 explains the new process used to setup the upper gear set that Merc went to when they changed to the pinion bearing with the flange installed. That allows use of wire shims to set the pinion depth.
On a standard Bravo a steel retainer nut is used to keep the parts inside the drive...

Hope this helps.
Dick

US1 Fountain

Mr. Gadgets, thanks for your replies, much appreciated. Your tower looks like really nice work.

I guess I might be confused here. Probably more to the fact that the gear upgrade is making me think there might be more than the install than originally thought since it is combining new with old.

Going originally and only by the Merc service bulletin about the need to upgrade to the newer thicker floored gears for my OL# drives, I understood that all I needed to do was to buy the 2 new thinner thrust spacers going by the numbers stamped in the housing back to determine the new size spacers needed. Purchase the upgrade gear repair kit, new sized spacers, then simply reinstall/torque everything and go to the lake. No where did I read about the need to reset the 2 gears back lash and pinion depth for the upper housing as I have done for the lower housing setup. I found that to be odd myself. Just unclear if that's all really needed to be done to do the install for the normal gear upgrade change over. For this conversation to keep it from geting confusing, I'm just refering to my stock OL# bravo drives w/o the steel tower mods at this point and concentrating on the new gears install itself.

In your last post when you mention the standard bravo (non XR) uses a steel retainer nut, did you mean AL?-- as that is what mine is. Not sure if you are stating the nut gets changed too. (I'm referencing to the large castle nut that holds the whole U-joint/pinion gear/bearings in)

Thanks again for any clarification you can offer.
Jerry

Mr Gadgets

Jerry,
I install the Imco steel retainer nut on the standard Bravo case. It is a nice piece. And yes that is the retainer nut you are reffering to.

The new gears can be installed by just swapping the shims (races, as I call them), but that is like rebuilding a drive and just trusting the numbers on the case to be correct. Supplement #28 shows the new procedure that Merc came up with to mimic what Imco has been doing for years. The Merc setup is a very good proceedure and requires more tools. But you do end up with the proper lash for the gears. If they top cap is swapped this procedure will tell you if it is setup correctly. If the shims are not quite as they say on the package (quite often they are not) then the procedure assures you have it correct..
Hope this helps.
Dick

AIR TIME

I saw you are a m&m steering dealer, I need a price on a bravo steering plates that mount on the drive with the drive shower, mine was stolen a while ago, so a few people were going to get back to me, it a big plate that goes over the drive and is drilled out for an 10 or 12 then runs down to drive. so its a double plate. so if you can give me a price great

US1 Fountain

New developements.

I really need a diminsion on a factory B1 cap. '99 OL model.
If anyone knows it and willing to share, really appreciate it.

Looking for either the measurement of the step in the top cap from the race surface to the cap/housing surface.
Or from under the shimming tool to either of the race surfaces, (but I'd need the shimming tool dia also for this option to do the math)
Or
(prefered) the overall distance between both upper and lower race surfaces. I made a tool that installs thru the input shaft bore that I'm using to compare the C/L of the input to both upper and lower races.

I need to remachine the race surface in my upper housing, but need some numbers for reference.

Once again, Thanks

Mr Gadgets

You are talking about the floor of the case? Where the race sits that the thrust bearing under the gear is, correct?

Is the race area damaged or warped?
Measuring from the top of the case to the floor runs between 4.982" and 4.986" They vary a bit.
The cap is .2645" into the case. Hope that helps..
If the floor is damaged I have it cut .050" and add a .051" shim, that brings it back into a range where the .06x" shims will work..
Hope that helps..
Dick

DMOORE

The Bravos on my boat were modified by MMW. They have the steel tower and floor and seem to do well. I think it really helps to keep everything stable.



Darrell.


PS BTW we added the steel Merc XR caps to add strength.