Gear problems

[Dsell]

I purchased a Wellcraft 260 Aft Cabin w/ 260 Merc/Alpha1 with 14.75 X 17 prop. It had set up a few years, and upon start up had a few problems. I never could get the RPM's past 3500. I I started by cleaning the fuel system, replacing the carb and fuel pump. This didn't help much. I proceeded to put in a new motor. The new motor seemed to be real strong. Right after break in I took the motor to full throttle was runnin well and reached 4000 rpm's, but seemed like the motor was struggling a little. The motor then revved quickly. I throttled back quickly, and there was no motor damage. I thought maybe it was a spun prop hub, but no such luck, the pinion gears were destroyed in the upper gear housing, (and yes the unit was full with fresh oil). I will replace the unit. I said al that to ask this: Is it possible that the gears were in a bind, and that that could cause a loss of RPMs? I figured that this was possible due to breakage the forst time that I had enough HP to push to 4000 RPMs. Thanks, Don

[Technical Support]

I have never seen a drive slow a boat down. Normally if they break a tooth things get ugly real quick. There would be no reason for the gears to bind, and if for some reason they had I think it would have sounded terrible. All bets are off if it had been assembled incorrectly though.

If you are just planning on buying an upper you should get the lower checked out also. At the very least pull the water pump off and rotate the lower by hand while pulling up on the driveshaft. Make sure it feels smooth. Also try both forward and reverse gears by rotating the shift shaft manually.

If your buying a complete drive then you don't need to worry about that.

Thanks,

Tech Support

[Dsell]

I have already purchased a lower unit from a vendor selling your stuff, mine was lookin kinda bad. I didn't have time to instaal yet. If I knew there were going to be problems, or that I could buy directly from you guys, I would have bought the upper and lower at the same time.