What's the Alpha weakness

[TahitiSteve]

What is the weakness of the alpha drive? Is it all about the internal parts, or is the case part of the problem as well? I halfway assume that I won't get anywhere with this or it would already be available, but anyone have suggestions for custom parts to beef up an Alpha?
If I find a way to do this I'm hoping to do it with no modifications to the case, so people wouldn't have to be worried about buying a whole new-name drive--i.e. if I went out of business their drive would still work with Merc Parts.

[TCHB]

The Alpha is good for around 300 hp. If you are going to go much more the shaft and gears will not handle the power. The Bravo shop or Steve at Savage Marine in Havasu can help you if you want to modify.

[TahitiSteve]

Bravo shop hasn't replied yet, but I don't think there is anything available to upgrade the power levels an alpha drive can handle.
What I'm looking for is some ideas on making an upgraded rebuild kit available for Alpha drives, and whether it is a feasible idea. Bravo shop lists their Alpha to Bravo swap setup at $6000 on their website, I assume that is just for parts so the cost would be significantly higher by the time you're ready to hit the water.
What I'm hoping to do is produce a rebuild kit which would handle higher power levels (hopefully 500 hp/tq or higher) for install without modification to the existing Alpha Drive shell. This way customers aren't weary of buying an entire drive setup from some no-name company which may go out of business and leave them stranded. If my venture failed customers could merely return to Merc parts.
If the shell itself won't handle the loading of the higher torque levels, then the project would be further out of reach. But if the shell can take it, the project might not take much more than using better materials for the internals.
At this point it's just an idea in my head, I have no idea how hard it would be to actually pull off. Could it be as simple as finding a better material and having gears cut from that material matching the dimensions of Merc parts? Also not sure what the legal ramifications of doing that would be.

[01RENEGADE]

Sounds good but it would have to be priced right

[MANIC MECHANIC]

I do not claim to be an expert, but it is my understanding that the major limiting factor in an alpha drive IS the housing. As the load(HP) is increased so is the force trying to separate the gears on the horizontal and vertical shafts. As the housing flexes allowing the gears to separate, the gear tooth contact patch eventually reaches the point that it becomes to small to transmit the force and the gear teeth break off. (You know the rest of the story) This is also the limiting factor in the Bravo; it(Bravo) can be upgraded with a stronger upper shaft,upper housing, gears and bearing carrier, but the ultimite limiting factor is the casting strength, hence the B-Max or speedmaster drives. There are no upgrades for a late model alpha drive that I know of. Tim smile_sp

[Yikes]

Love to have an internal upgrade kit for a Alpha. Running twin 260hp SBC. Headers, carb and cam would put me over the 300HP limit. The Bravo conversion is over the top for a old boat.

[TahitiSteve]

I think Maniac Mechanic is probably right that it's a case issue, in which case upgrading the internals wouldn't do much. I wonder if a custom C Clamp modified to fit around the bullet, and shaped to reduce drag would do any good?

[DUCKY]

The first thing on an alpha to break is the clutch dog, then the propshaft, then the gears. If the gears break, It is probably due to case flex as mentioned before.

[playdeep]

There is a company called Konrad who builds beefed up internals for the Alpha...
I bought one of they're drives for my old 377sbc,that kept chewing up the drive on my Tahiti.
I believe the web address is www.Konrad.com. (http://www.Konrad.com.)
Hope this helps.

[wowchad]

PLAYDEEP I TRIED THE LINK TO KONRAD AND IT'S ACTUALLY www.konradmarine.com. (http://www.konradmarine.com.)