my bravo outdrive gear experiment
#141
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Tore lower the rest of the way down,gears look close to perfect still. These gears have as many ,if not more,wfo passes on them then the others I have tried on several sets of gears combined(plus the 5 blade really helped to push them to their limit)although they have less total hours.I am going to re-assemble the lower with my other max worx xr style prop shaft and carrier and try to run them some more although it seems our warm weather is gone for the season. My next step is to go back go back to 80/90 synthetic oil (to free up some speed plus see if heavier oil lengthened the gear life)and see what they look like in another 10-20 hours,Smitty
Last edited by articfriends; 09-20-2006 at 04:36 PM.
#142
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Here are various pics of the lower gears. The newest treatment I contracted to have done looks like the ticket to longevity. Now after all this experimenting maybe I will be able to implement it in a way that will help my paying cutomers
Smitty
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Last edited by articfriends; 09-20-2006 at 04:28 PM.
#143
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Originally Posted by articfriends
Here are various pics of the lower gears. The newest treatment I contracted to have done looks like the ticket to longevity. Now after all this experimenting maybe I will be able to implement it in a way that will help my paying cutomers
Smitty
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Smity thats a weird place to break isnt?
Pantera28-650HP so thats about 200lbs heaver that a stock bravo set up
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#144
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Smitty,
Looks like you may have a lower gear recipe. It would be interesting to see what the next set will do with the same treatment. How long do you think this set will last with what you now know?
Have you had any upper problems ever?
Dwight
Looks like you may have a lower gear recipe. It would be interesting to see what the next set will do with the same treatment. How long do you think this set will last with what you now know?
Have you had any upper problems ever?
Dwight
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Originally Posted by Whitey
Smitty,
Looks like you may have a lower gear recipe. It would be interesting to see what the next set will do with the same treatment. How long do you think this set will last with what you now know?
Have you had any upper problems ever?
Dwight
Looks like you may have a lower gear recipe. It would be interesting to see what the next set will do with the same treatment. How long do you think this set will last with what you now know?
Have you had any upper problems ever?
Dwight
As far as uppers,I have been a dealer for Max Machine worx since the xr gears first came out and they did have some problems with the first stuff they sold. I initially ran my bone stock 2000 bravo for about a season with my blown 502,i sheared the floor out of a stock gear when I added headers and went to a 28 pitch prop. At that point I bought all the upgrade parts Max worx was selling at the time-shafts,modified xr gears,a few different bearings that were supposed to be better. I sent my upper to them and had there steel tower installed,got it back and put the other parts they sold me in it and my lower. At that point I bought most the merc tools too. After a year they came out with a better short shaft that goes in the cone clutch,a better middle coupler,a billet seal retainer and a humungous aluminum cap that was supposed to act as a heat sink. When I installed these parts I flipped the top gear to the bottom and bottom to the top to even out the time each gear had on it (right hand rotation). First time out I sheared the floor out of the lower gear in the upper just like the stock ones do,I was beating the pizz out of it when it happened.Turns out they were machining the xr gears for their heavier duty caged bearing and in-advertently had weakened them. I installed their newest xr upper and lower gears (which weren't machined out) and there current heavy duty bearings (i think that was in 02). Later that season I tore drive down to inspect it before going on a long vacation and pinion gear had scallops in it about .005 deep so I replaced just it (the original was one of the early soft xr pinion gears
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Last edited by articfriends; 09-20-2006 at 10:59 PM.
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Smitty,
With what you have done I would think someone running a stock set up would never wear out the drive. I too am hoping to hit the water a few more times before the ice. I have B1 lower case coming from Chris at Sterndrive spec. Hopefully it will be here in the next week or so. Dwight
With what you have done I would think someone running a stock set up would never wear out the drive. I too am hoping to hit the water a few more times before the ice. I have B1 lower case coming from Chris at Sterndrive spec. Hopefully it will be here in the next week or so. Dwight
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Interesting work Smitty.
Are you using a solid driveshaft hookup with that Stellings box? I'm convinced that the Imco torsional driveshaft plugged into a standard Merc coupler is better for drive life. Other than that, it looks like you have this drive thing figured out. Do you think that 2 of your drivetrains would live in a Black Thunder?
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#148
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Originally Posted by PatriYacht
Interesting work Smitty.
Are you using a solid driveshaft hookup with that Stellings box? I'm convinced that the Imco torsional driveshaft plugged into a standard Merc coupler is better for drive life. Other than that, it looks like you have this drive thing figured out. Do you think that 2 of your drivetrains would live in a Black Thunder?
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Last edited by articfriends; 09-21-2006 at 12:16 PM.
#149
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I been busy but here are a few pics of some batches of gears I have had prepped and treated for some oso'ers,local guys,mr gadgets and myself.Anyone interested let me know,I will have a few sets of new lower gears on the shelf that are cryoed and treated soon for anyone wanting to upgrade. Heres some xr uppers and pinions,trs gears,lower gears and even a set of 12 bolt gears I had done,they all looked beautiful after the gear processing,Smitty