Imco SC Drive Failures ... Beware!

[CAPTROBBY]

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT,
2 YEARS AGO MY BRAVO LOWER UNIT COMPLETLY BLEW APART TO THE EXTENT I NEEDED A NEW LOWER CASE AS WELL AS ALL OF THE GUTS. THE FAILURE TOOK PLACE WITH LESS THAN 100 HOURS ON THE BOAT. THE PROBLEM WAS THAT THE WARRENTY WAS THREE MONTHS OUT OF DATE. I'M VERY PLEASED TO SAY MERCURY STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE, AND NOT ONLY REPLACED ALL OF THE NEEDED PARTS BUT COVERD THE LABOR AS WELL.
THEY STOOD BEHIND THEIR PRODUCT. KUDOS TO THE FOLKS AT MERC. I AM PRUOD TO SAY MY NEW BOAT HAS A BRAND NEW 525 W/ AN XR DRIVE.

[faster]

I had an Imco Lower that Failed within the first 10 minutes of being installed on the first day of a 1 week vacation. I called IMCO to find out what I needed to do to get it replaced. They pretty much told me to pound sand. They were more interested in getting me off the phone before they even knew what my problem was!
Needless to say I took my Failed Imco Drive up to the boys at Max Machine Worx in havasu. They fixed it just to help me get back on the water. I Had them build me one of theirs, picked it up later that week, took the Imco off and it's still sitting in a box on my shop floor.
Go to Max Machine, Jason and Red are great and will deliver the customer service you'd expect on a big ticket item

[unleashed]

I think the point is they are telling Charlie it is driver error(Driving with the drives to High). That is a good way of getting out of having to cover the costs. Keep on them Charlie and let them know they will only lose business if they dont acknowledge the problem.
Deano
Unleashedclothing (http://www.unleashedclothing.com) :devil:

[Dave C]

Thanks for the story Charlie.
I have been doing some research and I was "wondering" about those small u-joints in that SC. Honestly I didn't think that looked very good prior to this.
Honestly I was leaning towards the upgraded XR in the first place, now I have more evidence for my choice.
My new boat is going to be powered kinda like yours albeit with just one motor.

[Donnie]

That is exactly why Bergeron put a XZ on by boat when the drive blew...Knock on wood 100 hours @ 888hp no problems.
Bergeron even gave me a 1 year warrany on the new drive

[boatnam2]

i went with a xr from teague,have not had a problem with it yet.but when it was new had a issue with the hose from the oil resevoir to the outdrive broke twice getting water into the drive.both times he completly took apart my drive inspected it and put it back together.i know alot of other places would of just drained the oil and said your good to go only to have problems later that they would tell you it was your fault.

[jbtrailerjim]

I just talked to Grass Pays (Joey) and he just had a similiar problem as Charley did and they used the same excuse that they gave Charley. They told him he must of had it trimmed too high. They pretty much blew him off. His drive had a whole lot less hours than Charley's did also. Sounds like IMCO is being chicken shit about the whole thing.

[HighRoller]

And for what? This is a perfect example of a company looking to save a buck without relizing they're losing 10 in the process!! I would be interested in how Dave is taking this.

[riverliver]

Wait till you hear about the problems with the 4x4...

[MRS FLYIN VEE]

Thannks for the info Charley and everyone else with the input.
we were thinking about the imco but now we are thinking another route.