nsphillips

I think I seized my drive over the weekend. It was my own fault, I filled from the top vent in a rush and forgot to top it off before running. One question is, should I rebuild or upgrade. It's a 1991 (gen I?) with 1.5:1 ratio. It's mated to a stock 350 mag (270 hp) on a Powerquest 185XLT. Since I'm going to have to pay is there any advantage to a gen II? I'd like to bump power to a max of 400 some day. I haven't pulled the drive yet, so I'm not sure if it's the upper or lower or both that is spent, but the steering wheel spins when the ignition is fired. Where should I start with diagnosis (top or bottom?).

Pwrbt33

The easiest is to just pull the top cap off and take a look inside. Usually the upper fails first when they are light on lube. I like the Gen II myself. They have perma-sealed u-joints, a stainless water pump body, a better impeller design and if you were to change the bell, you can get a reservoir bottle.

Sorry to hear about the drive.

Good luck.

John S.

masi242

look around on some web sitesyou should be able to find one for under 2k easy very simple swap. If you go bravo, you need to change the gimble housing all said an done your looking at 6k. This should be an easy choice.


welcome to the board

hillbilly24

The reality is if you locked up the upper then everything in the lower is trash too. The whole thing will be full of metal particles and every bearing ang gear in it will be scarfed from it. It will probably be cheaper to find a good used or reconditioned Gen II then rebuilding yours. You put a question mark next to Gen one in you question, if the tilts pin are held on by nuts it's a gen one if they are held on c lips it's a gen II.

happy hours

I had a prop seal fail once with GenI and it got low on lube before I knew it and it trashed the upper. The lower was full of crap but with only bearings and upper gear set it was ready to go. That being said there was a fair amount of brand new alpha ones around on the web for just over a grand.

traviss

You could just buy my boat.. simple easy way to fix that drive

nsphillips

Thanks for all the replys! Turns out it's a Gen II (c-clips, no nuts). I opened he top cap and all is well there but it smells burnt so I'll keep moving down until I find the mess. While I'd like to think that I will need a Bravo to handle lots of ponies it will probably never happen so I'll probably end up with a replacement Gen II. Thanks again! This is a great board!

Iggy

The reason you don't fill an Alpha from the top is that you may never get any oil down to the lower section. There is only one small 1/4" hole for the oill to flow between the upper anf lower sections when filling. No oil circulates while it's running.
By filling from the top the air pressure down low could prevent any oil from entering the bottom end.
Better tear the whole thing down. I'll bet the bottom end is wiped out.

powerqrudy

mine was stolen ..I just went and got one from a place in Clearwater FL...it is a knock off from china..but it was 1376.46 to my door..went right on ..now it has some more noise ..but hell it works fine for me...

nsphillips

Live and learn! Here is my excuse! I recently moved across the country and many of my tools, including my lube pump was lost. I bought quart bottles of lube, not tubes, and the nearest marine supply is 30 miles away (in SoCal traffic!). This is why I filled from the top.

I guess a blown out bottom end is better than the entire drive. The top end looked okay, but I will learn the result of my laziness this weekend..