zt260

Over the years I've blown a few outdrives usually due to overpowering or aggressive driving. But recently I've blown 2 XR lowers one 1.36 and one 1.5 ratio. Both times the lower gears were the problem. This is unusual by my past experience. So the question is- Has anyone else been breaking teeth on their lower rather that shafts or teeth in the upper?

Vinny P

Dave,
Did you get the motor back together? Are you breaking XR drives with the Quad rotor or your old blower motor?

jhnrckr

I lost my lower gears due to a bent prop shaft. The slight bend was nothing you could see by eye but when put in a lathe I could see the woble. Can also be from running on a damage or improperly balanced prop under high rpms and hp applications it doesn't take much to cause damaging vibration.

zt260

I picked up the boat today with the Quad rotor. We blew the XR this morning while testing. Jason is going to put the 1.5 gears in the sportmaster XR lower since I must be rebuilt. The Bmax is in FL for repair right now. My boat is becoming a trailer queen...

zt260

I was thinking the prop could be an issue. Since I have had this happen on two different drives. The prop is a brand new bravo 1, but it could be out of balance, I have not noticed any vibration.

Vinny P

You guys got that back together rather quickly. I hope it works better this time around. I don't think you can expect an XR to hold up to the kind of power you are putting through it, but I am sure you know that.

jpclear

You might want to talk to someone at Imco or Teague. It's my understanding that these HP guys do NOT want Merc oil in the highly stressed units. Try Amsoil or Redline, but don't take my word for it---call the pros who build the HI-perf stuff AND warranty it. --- JP

Biggus

The folks at Konrad recommend Royal Purple. They found it to work the best in their drives.

articfriends

I have broken xr upper gears. last time i sheared max machine worx vertical shaft vertical shaft. The lower gears are always scalloped or scarred where they had to be replaced but thev'e never outright failed on me,Smitty

KAAMA

I have come very close to blowing my XR's because of the pinion gears---word has it that Merc had a soft batch come through around the time when they first came out. I was running these XR's in a 32' A/T (8000 lbs) with 540 inch 650+hp. We caught the gears in time after about 50 hours of use.

ZT260, Could you please tell us what kind of power you are putting to your XR's and what size boat you are running it all in? thanks

Smitty, that is the first time I have heard a Max Machine Worx verticle shaft break---not that they haven't ever before, but I just haven't heard of any and haven't heard much bad about their stuff. What kind of power and what kind of boat, and how many hours on the drives when this happened? thanks