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Ranman
03-16-2009, 09:18 PM
Last fall on haulout day, after doing an oil change on land and running my port engine on the hose, I noticed that the upper end of the outdrive was making a pretty loud "growling" noise. It sounded too big to be a gimbal bearing, so I chaulked it up to a U-joint and decided to address it in the spring.

Well spring is here and my 5 year extended warranty runs through 3/28/09. I called the on-site marine mechanic at my marina and told them about the outdrive and probable U-joint issue.

Well, they pulled the drive and ssaid the joint is fine, however, after opening the drive up, they found that an o-ring under the top cap (shift shaft hole) had failed and water/moisture entered the drive causing rust and pitting to the upper gearset, bearings races, etc. The estimate to repair is $2800 :eek::eek:. The good news is this should be covered by the warranty.

The mechanic said that he's seen this before and that Merc has now replaced the o-ring with a flanged rubber sleeve. I asked him about the stbd drive and he said that I should check it out and put the sleeve in as a preventative measure if the o-ring looked OK. Well, I pulled the top cap and sure enough the o-ring on the stbd drive has failed as well. It looks like one end has been sucked into the shift shaft hole and it's not in the groove all the way around.

I know that Bravo III's can be noisy, so I thought that some howl was OK, the port drive was getting loud and now I'm left to wonder if what I was hearing in the stbd is normal or early failure... It looks like I'll be having that one pulled and looked at as well.

Has anyone heard of this issue before? Is it a common thing with B3 drives? It looks like it's going to be an expensive start to boating season for someone (hopefully the warranty company).:biggrin.:

Pismo
03-17-2009, 06:06 AM
Mine has been noisy since new. I never pay any attention.

BUIZILLA
03-17-2009, 06:29 AM
mine was quiet as a mouse... I luv 'em :pimp:

FISHIN SUCKS
03-17-2009, 07:44 AM
Kimjonandmacy's '98 275 medallion unloaded a B-III last summer after aoth. I don't know if the O-ring was the cause or not, drive was 10 years old, but i don't know of any previous issues. It did howl and I was driving it on a slow evening cruise when we discovered pulling up to the dock we had no reverse, then no forward. No, no damaging crash into the dock, I was putz'n along. But, she lost all gears. His unit was replaced, insurance covered it.