Background......
Built a new Alpha 1 over the winter. Used GLM lower gears and HD 1.50 upper gears. Shimmed per the FSM and it's set up right. Ran great all summer and gears were broken in per GLM instructions. At 82 hours on drive I noticed gear oil resevoir bottle offcolor. I pulled drive and found water contamination. I replaced all seals and fixed problem. I then totally pulled drive apart and cleaned all parts along with case. Gears were fine at this point. Reassembled and refilled with oil and went back to boating.
A few days ago, 125 hours on drive. I pulled the boat and drained the lower unit oil and the magnet was covered with metal. I pulled the drive apart and found everything ok except the pinion gear teeth have started to come apart and scall as you can see in the pics. All pinion teeth except three are like this. The F gear and R gear are ok. Upper gears are ok.
Did the water mixing with the oil hurt the gear and then it started to wear? Anyone have any ideas or similar experiences? I use Mobil 1 Syn 75W-90 and change it religiously at 25hr intervals. Drive shower on drive.
355ci 400hp SBC
I have a spare Alpha 1 with HD upper gears also so I threw it on so I can still enjoy these late Sept 80* boating weekends.
I plan to replace the lower gears over the winter with a new set of Merc gears and will redo the bearings as they got some metal pushed thru them.
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/8...iniodu6.th.jpg (http://img212.imageshack.us/my.php?i...hapiniodu6.jpg)