Mirage Drive V2 Issues - GT upgrade SQUEEKS HORRIBLY

Hey all,

I recently updated my V2 mirage drives with GT bearings. This seems like it was a terrible waste of money.

My yak is the Oasis tandem circa 2014 with V2 drives. Id been using the standard set up with turbo fins for many years of mostly ocean/gulf fishing with zero issues. Probably put 1,000 miles on this thing. Last year the teeth on the chain sprocket broke so I figured ill upgrade to GT bearing drive both units, drums and idlers. I put in all the bearings, and took her out in the ocean, within a day both drives completely locked up, couldnt move them at all.

So took it apart and come to find the needle bearings in the drums are totally swollen and now completely bound up. It took 20 minutes with a flathead to pry 1 need bearing out, then they all dropped out. I figured maybe you arent supposed to use all the needle bearings, so I deleted 1 needle bearing from each drop and the idler. The idler was very stiff too, the needle bearings needed to be pryed out of that.

So now the drive is functioning again very smooth but OMFG it sounds like scraping 2 Styrofoam cups together every time you peddle. Loader that this guys -- https://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/inde ... c=64368.15

So now im back from a great beach trip where ive definitely pissed off every fish and shark in the gulf of mexico, and every passenger in my kayak, and im trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I got maybe 8 hours out of this GT set up before it bound up and now squeeks so bad Id rather stick a fish hook thru my thumb then peddle it.

Theres no way Im taking this thing apart to relube it every time, it takes a while to do that and way too much a PIA. Im considering just going back to the normal drive not GT but hell Ive spent ALOT of $ to upgrade.

Whats the deal here ?

And sorry for posting in this forum, not sure where to post mirage drive issues.