Bravo I removal

D

D. Andrews

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Feb 26, 2006
RO Number
20354
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Getting ready to pull my engine and outdrive, reading the forums, everyone says to shift to forward, manual says neutral, what say ye experts?.......D........
 
I just looked at a factory Merc drive service manual online that noted Bravo drives should be in Neutral shift position ( whereas Alphas would be in Forward for RH drives, and Reverse for LF drives.)

Just reporting what I read, not from useful experience ...
 
The Alpha has a vertical shaft that, seen from above, rotates from 12 o'clock( forward), 11 o'clock (neutral), 10 o'clock Reverse. Only at 12 o'clock (forward) does it line up so the drive will pull.

The Bravo has a linear shift connection. It will actually pull in any gear but in forward, the 'alligator' clamp extends further out which makes it easier to re-attach the drive. In neutral, the alligator clamp will release an inch earlier than forward gear. It's easy to shift by hand to forward just before re-attaching the drive. Put the remote in reverse so the cable end extends out to meet the alligator clamp earlier as the drive comes together.
 
Charlie, you don't read anything like that in the manual for sure. That has the sound of experience to me. Not sure if you seen the other post or not, but the engine has to come out, looks like spun bearing and probably some collapsed lifters. Once the drive is off and I get a frame built to pull it with, will probably hit you up for the same questions for pulling the engine. Once out I can rebuild it blind folded, have just never pulled an out drive and an inboard before. Going to use the opportunity to do a lot of other stuff in the engine room that I cant do with an engine in it..................D..........
 
I was pulling my engine and others enuff to warrant making a portable, trailer mounted crane. Was using a backhoe or forklift. The forklift was used in my backyard on gravel and was too unstable,hence the crane idea.

collapsed:



extended:

 
That is just too neat! I like it. Too bad cal is just a bit too far to drive....D........
 
Charlie, were any Chickens harmed in the production or operation of this hoist?
 
The chickens hide under the trailer. That's their security blanket when the hawks come snooping around.
One of the young chicks turned out to be a rooster. Getting a lot bigger than the hens so maybe it'll keep the hawks away.

Here's a simple lift for the bravo drive made from a cheapie jack. BII shown

 
That's pretty neat and looks simple enough to build. Is that plywood on top of metal plate?........D..........
 
Charlie, on the jack for the drive, what is the distance from the jack to the end of the extensions you added? I started building it today. I have the jack and have made the 2 bends in it already. It is just hard to tell the length of the extension. Mine will be a bit different as I have a lot of 3 X 3 X 14 angle laying around. A bit overkill but I have a lot of it......D......
 
Mine was some square tubing laying around. Length was a guestimate. Whadaya think, 2 foot?
 
I got some long bolts, made a plate for the top of the drive and used a "Come-a-long" to get mine out.
I got an alignment tool, to make things right with the engine before I put the drive back in.
As I recal, I had the shifter in one gear or the other (can't remember it was years ago now)
 
Looking at the picture, it seems to be 1X the length of the jack which would be about 2 feet, so 2 feet it is.......D..........
 
Well it is built, less paint, but it is built. Will pull the drive this week end. I added in some angle adjustment using a ratchet strap. Read that as the jack is old and had a lot of play forward and back so I used that to my advantage to give me some angle adjustment. Took me pretty much all day. I think mine will weight more than the drive with all that angle iron..........D..........
 
The bravo l should work good with you stand. I have the Bll which is longer and I have to lower the trailer tongue to get the drive on and off.
 
Thats strange as I had to do the same, the toung is barly off the ground now, the jack is as far down as it will go. This was the only way I could put the drive in full down position. Other wise, it hit the ground before fully trimming down. But the other side of that is I have an F250 4X4 that sits pretty high so I have to jack it up a lot to get it to hook up.........D.......
 
I'm gonna do a little cutting and welding to try and lower the drive another inch. The BII is about 2"-3" longer than the alpha it replaced. The anti-ventilation plate also sits lower than the 'keel'. I thought there may be a problem but if there is one, it's probably the increased drag that's cutting down on my fuel economy.
 
The jack made all the difference, was able to remove it alone in less than 20 minutes, much easier than I thought it would be and would have been with out the jack for sure.

Looked at the water intake and it is clear, no obstructions in the drive section at all. So the over temp issue was not from there, maybe eventually I will stumble on it during the engine tear down. Did notice that the tilt and trim limit switch wires were broke so I will pull the gimbal housing also to fix that, needs repainted anyway. Engine is next once the stand gets here and I build a frame to pull it with...........D..........
 
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