Engine Coupler Problem?

Well, she made it through the summer with flying colors. Working great! Thanks for all the help.
 
Myold, I'm not positive but I asked the same question about my 1 drive, how much HP will it hold, and I think someone told me right around 200 HP, give or take a few. They're not as strong as the MR or alpha drives, I believe those are good for around 300 HP.
 
That's really interesting, peteyo. Mine is the Mercruiser "Late Model I" outdrive. I wonder what the coupler's aluminum splines are rated at, at what torque they are designed to fail, and how that correlates to a big adult cutting hard while skiiing behind a 140 attached to a big old pontoon boat.
 
Well, if if your drive is gonna break, you can be sure it's taking all the load it was ever meant to.

Actually, shifting with 'too high' of an idle or worse, reving the engine and shifting before the engine settles back to idle speed will put damaging stress on the gears. It might break when you're dragging a skier but the real damage could have been done earlier.
 
Curious if anyone else has any information on if a Late Model I outdrive could be overloaded to the point of damaging the coupler by an adult slalom skier, or should the prop lose it's "bite" first? (see 7/12/07 posts above)
 
Odd--this exact conversation came up recently. I ran into a guy who's boat was in the shop. He said he had an I/O with a 350 and a Bravo II. He said the aluminum coupler splines were chewed up. The boat was still under warranty, so not very old. The mechanics told him they were putting in a coupler with stainless steel inner splines. I guess it took a while to get Merc to agree to cover the extra cost (the guy said 300 bucks, but I have no idea). I asked him to ask his mechanic what will become the weak link, the sacrifical part in the power path from the engine through the drive to his stainless steel prop. I haven't run into him since, so I don't know what he was told. It sounds to me like the guy might be pushing his set up awfully hard, so do you think that 350 is going to tear up that Bravo II drive, now that there's not an aluminum spline to give up?
 
Engine alignment is the only thing I`ve found to take out a coupler.
The next time anyone JUST replaces the coupler ,I can say with utmost confidance the drive wont go back on.The rear bushings can be sheared/damaged by the sheer torque of a motor.Ever break a motor mount in your car. The motor want to jump out. Same with a boat,it tries to twist itself out every time you gas it. Regular maintance of pulling the drive might let you catch a mis-alignment.And dont forget the front mounts sinking when the wood rots away.
The one in my boat let loose just putting it in gear chasing blues.Come to find out the rear mount collapsed ,and everything was perfect when I splashed it.
 
So How's everything going this year?

Yeah, the only thing that's gonna wipe out the coupler splines are mis alignment and just plain wear.(gotta keep greasing them)

Someone adapted a Bravo coupler to a Yanmar flywheel adapter plate to run a Bravo drive. It has the coupler with the tube extending from the regular Disk coupler. I think it has the SS splines. The regular disk coupler costs $270 so the SS one would cost more but I haven't priced it.
 
Well, I sure didn't want to have to bump this thread, but the
coupler failed after only 2 years. ouch. I'll start a new
thread.

:(
 
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