Bravo3 Failure of Upper drive Shaft and Shift Collar

My new replacement Bravo 3 with about 100 hours on it locked up in reverse. My friend said he heard a pop when my son put it in reverse after launching.

I found that the shift collar will not move up and down and it appears that the upper drive shaft and collar have incurred damage. I've noticed that it has been going in toot reverse a little harder the past year.

The shaft and clutch assy are over $600 so I was able to find both on Ebay for $230. I'll use my old outdrive until I get the new parts installed.

I suspect that the spiral gear on the shaft and the shift collar have broken internally. It's easy to remove the assembly though. It comes out by pulling the pinion assy and removing the pin holding the shift arm.

Pulled it apart and found the clutch shifter collar stuck in the upper clutch cone. I had to drive it out. I used the new shaft and clutch shifter collar. The shifting had always been a little stiff so when I reassembled it I found it still stiff and not wanting to shift easy. In checking the parts I bought off the internet I noticed that the coil spring located above and below the shift collar was a little smaller. The spring is pushed down over a collar and expands when shifting between forward and reverse. This puts pressure on the collar I assume to prevent it being shifted too easy. I used the springs from the parts clutch and it made a lot of difference. They seem to have used stiffer springs in the new outdrives. My old outdrive shifts very easy. It must have lighter springs yet. I'm going pull it apart and look at them.

If you went thru merc to get parts you would have been upgraded to the latest parts automatically.

I did a bravo 1 a year ago and no old parts available, Had to upgrade to all new parts...$1600.00 had to do a complete upper rebiuld............

No way around it. now individual parts can be purchased if needed.