Bravo III Bearing Carrier Question

[msd58]

I have Bravo 3 bearing carrier that came with a purchase of some used Bravo III parts . It is clearly in perfect condition. However it does not have green zinc chromate paint on the exposed part of the carrier that I see on the new ones for sale. My question is this. Are the new ones just painted with a zinc chromate paint or made out of a special anodized aluminum? I can save myself $375 if i just paint the one i have.

 

[tpenfield]

It may be an older part. I recall that there was another source of the Mercruiser B3 Bearing Carrier, just can't remember the name. You can probably just paint it once it is installed.

 

[msd58]

I may have found the answer to my question. The part number on the bearing carrier is 805291 which still comes up as valid part number on a number of Mercruiser parts sites. Mine does not have the green color chromate on the aft half of carrier. Further research I found an article written by Boat US Consumer Protect Reports. It appears the the bearing carrier fix (when this article was written in Nov 2001) was to coat the bearing carrier with chromate coating. Here is the excerpt from the the article...."[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]According to a marine corrosion expert and metallurgist now retired from Mercury Marine, there's no anode on the bearing carrier on pre-2000 Bravo III models "because there's no room." The drive shaft areas on Alpha and all Bravo sterndrives are identical but the twin propellers on Bravo IIIs take up more space. Dale Pluhar, now an independent marine consultant, explained that Mercruiser’s response was to counteract corrosion by coating the aluminum carrier with chromate material to prevent corrosion. Merc also issued a new prop shaft bearing that creates a better watertight seal and they added a second anode to the Bravo III's cavitation plate. These new parts first became available in December 2000 and in the spring of 2001".......Here is the link to article: [/FONT]http://my.boatus.com/consumer/CorrosionBurns.asp

 

[tpenfield]

Excellent work :thumb:

Not that the chromate paint will do all that much, but at least they tried.

The earlier Bravo3's had a lot of corrosion problems due to the greater amount of stainless steel on the outdrive (shafts, props, etc.) The bigger solution was to add more anodes, particularly at the prop.

so, i guess if the bearing carrier is not painted, it is the 'old' version. It will probably be fine, but I would think folks would prefer the new version to get the better seals.

I bought 2 of the new ones last year . . . $385 each

 

[msd58]

Yes best price on the "new" carrier I have seen is $375.00 plus shipping. I will paint it chromate paint and as precaution replace the seal.