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gero1
03-09-2004, 02:20 PM
thinking about buying a bh 22, but have heard you cant find parts for this drive if it breaks, what breaks? how often does somethig break?what cant i get,water pump,bearings,seal kits,props. thanks

MOP
03-09-2004, 02:25 PM
I picked up a BH drive last fall, props are a bugger. A few members have some they may chime in. THere is no pump in the drive, has engine driven one. Not real sure but except for a few internals Bravo parts are used throughout the drive.

Phil

gero1
03-09-2004, 02:36 PM
I picked up a BH drive last fall, props are a bugger. A few members have some they may chime in. THere is no pump in the drive, has engine driven one. Not real sure but except for a few internals Bravo parts are used throughout the drive.

Phil
thanks for the info,what i am looking at is a 1995 22 ft black hawk,all org. boat and trailer, would hate to buy it and have some small part go out in the drive and not be able to get it fixed.has org. props on it,31p says boat will run close to 80?

Ranman
03-09-2004, 02:46 PM
I think the only thing you can't really get is the one piece gearcase. All the internals are still available as they are essentially Bravo parts. Oh, the vertical shaft might be a bit tough to find as it's sepcific to the BH. Lastly, props are scarce and pricey if you do find them. Plan on spendingg well over a grand if you need a new set of props.

The BH Donzi's are not necessarily prone to breakage. The only real issue is the loading and unloading of the drive when the props leave and reenter the water.


Woodsy von Outboard should chime in with good advice as he's a knowledgable former BH owner.

thriller
03-09-2004, 02:55 PM
There is a lot of info from previous threads on the Registry answering your questions and maybe others. Simply type "Blackhawk" or type "Blackhawk limited edition" Todd sommerville and Bill Bateman have both done research on the hulls, legs etc. It's all under the Search. Seek and you will find.
ps Be sure to do your search when you are at the"Donzi Registry" rather than say a column header ie: Donzi Girls.. Hope this helps..
ps. www.sterndrives.com (http://www.sterndrives.com)
They will have all parts with the exception of the vertical shaft..
MM:cool:

MOP
03-09-2004, 03:04 PM
I doubt if I will break mine hooking it to a SB, but the thought has crossed my mind of grabbing a deal on a Bravo for a spare if I need to work on the BH. The swap from BH to Bravo has been done by a board member in the past.

Phil

Woodsy
03-09-2004, 04:26 PM
Gero...

The upper gearset in a BH drive is run of the mill Bravo1 gearset. There is a HD gearset available for the uppers. The lower set is std Bravo 3 stuff, readily available. Like RanMan said the hard parts are the cases, vertical shafts and props. All of these are NO LONGER AVAILABLE from Mercury. They will get harder and harder to find as time marches on. For enough $$$ say $3500 or so there are a couple of propshops that will cast the propellers for you. A machine shop should be able to make you a vertical shaft again if you throw enough $$$ at it. The sandcast one piece housing? Your out of luck, every now and again one pops up on one of the boards or E-bay, but it will run you $1500 minimum in good used condition. These drives do break on occasion, mostly from the stress & shock of the 16.5" diameter props during reentry. Ask Fast Eddie how long it took before he broke his. He got lucky and didn't lunch the housing.... most BH owners I know have a spare drive... I could prob scare up a brand new one for about $5000 or so, but thats a little steep. I have seen them cheaper... say $3500 used to $4500 new.

The boat itself is quite the machine. It will take some time to master how to drive it, but she does run darn close to 80...

If you have any questions, give me a buzz... 978-502-5465 I'll be happy to help you out.


Woodsy Von Outboard... former BH collector....

Greg Maier
03-09-2004, 04:35 PM
Hoss Props in Oklahoma will make you a set of BH Props for $2400, anywhere from 24 pitch to 32 pitch. They built the original props for the drive when it was in R&D and they still have the molds for them. For $2400 the props are heat treated and then cryogenically treated. The owner of shop said that you can squeeze some more speed out of the drive with their props. Maybe, maybe not. :boggled:

Rootsy
03-09-2004, 06:26 PM
speaking of NLA driveshaft housings ;)

Rootsy... now where'd i put that? :tongue:

MOP
03-10-2004, 04:42 PM
More BH input, got my B3 wheels yesterday. Yes I am profaning the BH by putting B3 wheels on it! Went out to see what Dave (Woodsey) was saying about machine work needed to fit the B3's to the BH drive. So with calipers in hand did some pretty close measuring of the shaft lengths, hub and bearing carrier etc. The shafts and cones that the props center on are the same dimensions. The bearing carrier is 1/4 larger across than the B3, so off to the machine shop for initial work. Then went to my local Black Magic shop to compare some of the measurements. The gear case its self is also larger by another 1/4 inch, so Merc made the actual case heavier with a much heavier looking bearing carrier. Once the internal hub is cut then final measuring will be done for final fit. Will get back on that in the future.

Phil

gero1
03-10-2004, 05:12 PM
More BH input, got my B3 wheels yesterday. Yes I am profaning the BH by putting B3 wheels on it! Went out to see what Dave (Woodsey) was saying about machine work needed to fit the B3's to the BH drive. So with calipers in hand did some pretty close measuring of the shaft lengths, hub and bearing carrier etc. The shafts and cones that the props center on are the same dimensions. The bearing carrier is 1/4 larger across than the B3, so off to the machine shop for initial work. Then went to my local Black Magic shop to compare some of the measurements. The gear case its self is also larger by another 1/4 inch, so Merc made the actual case heavier with a much heavier looking bearing carrier. Once the internal hub is cut then final measuring will be done for final fit. Will get back on that in the future.

Philthanks to all who replyed,youve been a great help