BRP Gear Case: Propeller Strike

[jimh]

I thought a few of our Bombardier Recreational Products fans would appreciate these pictures of the gear case components from a recent BRP 225-HP DI engine. Here is the background:

A boat was operating a high speed at night in a narrow waterway. A small watercraft without any navigation lights suddenly appeared ahead. The operator swerved out of the channel to avoid hitting the small boat, running his boat and the lower unit of the engine into a rock shoal at about 30-MPH.

The four-blade stainless steel propeller suffered very significant damage. The nose cone of the gear case was dented. The propeller shaft was bent. The internal gears, however, appeared to sustain no damage at all.

The Propeller:




Imagine the torque needed to bend that stainless steel like that!
OK, here are the gears that transmitted that torque:





These gears are from a quite recent model engine, probably model-year 2004 or newer.
I think these are the newer "Magnum" series gears, an upgrade from BRP to handle the
torque. Looks like they are up to the task!

[champ150]

Ok, I am a die hard RUDE fan, but I find that kinda hard to believe. ANY outboard manufacturer's gear case that has been hit that hard would show some kind of wear on the gears, those gears look like they just came outa the box! If this is really true...go BOMB!!! No disrespect to you, but I just kinda find it hard to believe, haha!

[jimh]

No kidding here. I fished all these parts out of the same cardboard box that was sitting on the floor with the mangled lower unit. The gears are spotless. The engine only had a few hours on it when this unfortunate incident took place.

[Bassmeister]

No matter how good those gears look don't let em put em back in!!!!

[toddgot5fish]

what he said , get new ones now or pay later

[ProcraftMike]

They may look good, but I guarantee they are fatigued. If that prop is that beat up, the impact was transferred through those gears. There are may members on here (including myself) that had the gears re-used on an impacted lower unit, only to have the gears fail a short time later.

[250ETECHO]

I have also seen those gears in person and that Prop, it is un real. Lockemans in Detroit was handling the repair.

[jimh]

I am a disinterested third-party in the repair process, however, for those who have advised against re-use of these gears, I do believe the owner got a completely new gear case as part of the remedy offered by his insurance provider. But, I have to add that I have looked very closely at those gears and they show no sign of damage.

Again, I think the gears held up remarkably. Several people have commented that they've never seen a stainless-steel propeller bent that badly. It was one helluva prop strike.

[toddgot5fish]

if you can get them to a shop that does magnaflux test, i believe you'll find out that they are in fact cracked. this is the same test used on airplane props to detect cracks that won't show up til later, i replaced my propshaft only to have my GREAT looking gears GO OUT 30 days later.........your call

[ChampioNman]

Ditto! Jason thanks for the help on Wheeler! ! I wish I could have met you. CM

[jimh]

If anyone has a free MagnaFlux test available, let me know. I could probably get those gears and send them to your for testing. This would settle the question.

[PJCodner]

I think what Jim is getting at here is that there was no visiable gear damage even though the prop was completly destroyed along with the lower unit. Goes to show that BRP products are top notch. I don't think Jim had any intentions to reuse the gears since the whole lu was replaced by the insurance company.

[THE WITCHDOCTOR]

I could magniflux them, but if they don't have a crack, then the magniflux wouldn't be worth anything. Even if you have them sonor or ekg'd, they might still fail...

[Bassmeister]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MNJAVELIN &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I think what Jim is getting at here is that there was no visiable gear damage even though the prop was completly destroyed along with the lower unit. Goes to show that BRP products are top notch. I don't think Jim had any intentions to reuse the gears since the whole lu was replaced by the insurance company. </TD></TR></TABLE>
I read ya Paul, and I agree I don't think he or any one that has a clue to marine applications would reuse em but I'm thinkin guys that wouldn't know ....... ya know?

[ChampioNman]

There are some shady dealers out there that will re-use parts with out testing them. The reverse gears would probably be fine to use as it is only used very little but the forward gear should be replaced. I hate to do a job twice ! CM

[jimh]

I don't know where all this advice about not re-using the gears is coming from--it seems to have taken on a life of its own. The intent of presenting this information in the first place was to show how undamaged the gears appear to be. Not to ask advice on re-using them.

People who speculate that the gears contain hidden flaws really have no basis to make these statements about these gears because they have not even seen these gears in person. I have seen the gears in person and I have looked carefully at them, and, as I describe, they appear to be unaffected by the propeller strike. They look to be in perfect condition. I don't think there is a rational basis by which you can say that the opinion of someone who has not seen the gears in person is intrinsically more valid.

I think it is reasonable advice to be very careful about re-using components which were subjected to overloads that caused destructive failure of related components.

But, please, understand that the gears were not reused. And understand that I don't think people who see rather low resolution images of them as presented above have psychic powers that enable them to detect hidden flaws.

And, just for the fun of it, it might be interesting to test these gears to see what might turn up. However, I'll say it again, these gears look to be absolutely perfect, and, to me, are indicative of a very high strength of materials used in the BRP Magnum gear case. That's all. End of story from me.

[toddgot5fish]

jimh
in that case i'll give you 25 bucks for'em...........

[Bassmeister]

jimh, It's called EXPERIENCE bud!!
Nobody here is doubting the integrity of BRP's parts, but after a prop strike like that I want all new parts no matter who builds the parts and how good they look. EXPERIENCE has shown me time and time again that they WILL fail if reused. Did ya check Procraft Mike's response?? His lu was redone again! We are just trying to pass on some info that has cost some people a lot of lost boating time and save other members the same hassle. I'll low bid Todd and offer 15.00 and use em for plug knockers!

[jimh]

Re: Experience

When "experience" is cited, I assume you are talking about first-hand experiences with the recent BRP gear case Magnum gears from 200-225-HP V6 motors which your personally re-used and then personally experience failure. Is that true?

[ChampioNman]

Jim,
I have over 35 years expierience as an OMC tech, although I am not BRP DI or E-Tec certified, I am Carb certified. Yes they appear to look good and I am not going to get into a pissing contest over the appearance of the gears. IMHO the impact that the prop took was transfered to the complete drive train unless the pilot was lucky enough to shift into neutral prior to impact. Minimum replacement on my end would be prop shaft, bearing carrier, clutch dogs, forward and reverse gears and drive shaft. Yes from the pix they show like they would be fine for replacement with no chipped teeth or missing teeth. No matter wether it is a lightning GC, Magnum or STD GC I would not mess with taking the chance on iffy gears. CM