bford1

Okay first thanks to everyone for your input. I took the boat to a mechanic near the marina and first off I do have the B/W trannys. That's good. Secondly, he said he thought the trannys were fine. Good also. Now the bad news - it's the starboard outdrive. He wasn't 100% but siad he was pretty sure. The tranny fluid smelled fine and you can really the binding in the outdrive when you turn the prop by hand. The dipstick on the srarboard (bad) outdrive was barely showing any fluid at all. So, I pulled the port (which still works flawlessly) and it too was barely showing any fluid.

I ran the boat about 1 maybe 2 hours after picking it up from South Austin Marine (SAM) where they did a full outdrive service (around $340 per side). On the port side (that still runs perfectly) I spent another $800 or so for new gimble, etc. etc. as the port side was a lot older then the starboard. When they serviced the starboard side they said it looked like new inside.

So, I brought it back to SAM and Brian assured me that if it was anything they did they'd take care of it 100% but his Merc guy is out untuil Monday. I wanted to stay and drain the fludin to see what it looked like and how much metal was in it but I had to get back to work.

Opinions - do they have any liability? I wrote them a check for $2000 for the outdrive service and some various other service and less than 2 hours later the drive fails. Or, are they just going to say I'm way over powering the drives and that's what happens?

IMO if the fluid in both drives is way low (as it is) then someone screwed something up. Either they didn't vacuum test it or forgot to refill it or someting. I never saw any oil slick around me and it didn't puke it out in the bilge.

Sorry for the long post. Just had to rant a bit.

Thanks again for the support.

bford1

From what I've read on here I was thining that the TRS drives would hold up with the B/W trannys.

Can they be beefed up? Since I have one bad one now I suppose that now would be a good time to make any changes necessary.

bford1

Ouch I know that hurt the old pocket book. I am trying not to break the bank on this one and the loss of the drive yesterday has got me seriously thinking about selling the whole thing. I told the wife I was thinking about selling it and surprisingly I think she's already gotten attached to the old Formula. So, we'll just have to see.

How about the "Doctor Dave" guy I read about on the old threads that build the TRS drives. Does anyone know if he got out of the boat business?