I have a ‘99 22c with 454 Mag/Bravo 1. The drive has about 500 hours.
I’ve been having issues with the drive. I am losing power and the drive monitor bottle expands by ½ pint after a full power pass. I have an aftermarket glass drive monitor bottle which hold at least a pint so easy to tell. The drive is getting hot and it has a drive shower on it.
I did some testing with the upper gears by swapping the forward and reverse gear. I also replaced all upper bearings and races since I had it apart and if it worked, I didn’t want to take it apart again. I had some shifting issues in forward. It was slow dropping into gear or I had to increase the revs to get it to engage. It shifts fine now in forward and shockingly, not so well in reverse. LOL
My thinking is the lower gears and or bearing are shot and the dog and clutch as well. The boats been run hard.
I’m not sure if fixing an older Bravo is worth the money. I would ultimately love to have an XR upper with 2” shorty. And then a 454 LSX when I blow the stock motor (years down the road). Unfortunately I have spent a small countries GDP on medical bills in the last year and more to come. So Taz is on a budget.
I can swing a whole drive replacement next spring (baring putting another doctors kid through college) and use the boat this year and go easy on the drive, keep the RPM’s down BUT that is so not me. It won’t happen even if I try.
I appreciate all inputs, thoughts, rants, raves…well not so much raves.
Also, does anyone run a Bravo 3 on their Classic?
Thanks,
Taz
"Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary will get you every time." 
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Originally Posted by txtaz
