Bravo II lower bearings preload

[fishaman]

I had a small oil leak from propshaft seals, so I have removed the bearing carrier, put in new seals, and assembled back with new load ring and O-ring. In order to get a correct preload with new load ring, I have separated upper and lower housings, and installed a flat plate to hold the gear shaft in place. While tightening the carrier ring nut to get a correct preload, I got to the point where it takes tremendous force to turn the nut, and I still have about 1/16" of axial movement in prop shaft, which means no preload has been reached. I understand that I need to crash the new load ring, but for some reason I did not expect that it will take that much torque to get there.

Is it normal to have that much resistance while setting preload on Bravo II ?
I am just afraid to crack the housing, or cause some other damage. That's my first time messing with Bravo lower, it will be great to hear from more experienced people.

Thank you,
Alex

 

[fishaman]

Re: Bravo II lower bearings preload

I dont believe noone ever put together a Bravo II lower with a new crash sleeve... All I need is some observations on how it normally goes, like "Oh, man, it should go real smooth, something's wrong with your drive..." or "Yeh, this damn sleeve is so hard to compress, I usualy use a 10 pound hammer on 3 feet breaker bar..."

 

[fishaman]

Re: Bravo II lower bearings preload

Problem solved, just reporting my experience for future first-timers.

I backed off the retainer nut, pulled the carrier and shaft, and a close ispection showed some pretty hard scale covering the inner part of housing threads that were exposed to saltwater behind the ring nut. The scale was thick and even, it looked like no threads had ever been cut there. I probably would have cracked the housing by continuing to tighten the nut.

Surprisingly, the threads were not really corroded. After scraping them clean with some bent and sharpened nail they looked pretty solid, and my second attempt at getting to the correct preload went without any problems.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Bravo II lower bearings preload

Thanks for posting that!


Cheers,


Rick

 

[MahtyMaht]

Re: Bravo II lower bearings preload

Ditto on the thanx, and congrats on the solution.