buying a used Cobra Drive??

[SHickey]

Hello,

One of my greatest fears as a boater with an OMC out-drive is creaming it on a partially submerged log or rock at 25-35 MPH and rendering it useless. That being said, I have an opportunity to buy a Cobra out-drive at a reasonable price that came off of a '88 4.3 liter. The boat I have is an '87 '19 Blue Fin and it has a 2.3 Liter.

I believe the Cobra drives for the 2.3 liter and the 4.3 liter drives are interchangeable and I will ask the seller to provide me with the drive model # before I check out the drive.

Can someone tell me if there are ways of visually inspecting this out-drive to see if the gears, seals, and shifting mechanism are ok?? Without mounting the OD on my stern, can I buy this OD with reasonable confidence after I perform the recommended inspections?

Thanks in advance for any recommendations and advice.

SH

 

[airdvr1227]

Re: buying a used Cobra Drive??

I can't answer your questions other than to say after you buy the replacement OMC drive you still have the same fears as before. You can always do a conversion Boat Sterndrive, Outboard Lower Unit, Sterndrive Engineering This is my plan in the event of a problem.

 

[tfitch03]

Re: buying a used Cobra Drive??

You could make a pressure tester and take it with you to test the seals. If there is a leak you could assume there may be water inside the drive and possibly more issues.

 

[Levinz11]

Re: buying a used Cobra Drive??

Hello,

One of my greatest fears as a boater with an OMC out-drive is creaming it on a partially submerged log or rock at 25-35 MPH and rendering it useless. That being said, I have an opportunity to buy a Cobra out-drive at a reasonable price that came off of a '88 4.3 liter. The boat I have is an '87 '19 Blue Fin and it has a 2.3 Liter.

I believe the Cobra drives for the 2.3 liter and the 4.3 liter drives are interchangeable and I will ask the seller to provide me with the drive model # before I check out the drive.

Can someone tell me if there are ways of visually inspecting this out-drive to see if the gears, seals, and shifting mechanism are ok?? Without mounting the OD on my stern, can I buy this OD with reasonable confidence after I perform the recommended inspections?

Thanks in advance for any recommendations and advice.

SH

While the outdrive will bolt to the boat and it will turn the prop. They ARE NOT interchangeable because of the fact that the gearing is WAY different for these 2 motors. Gearing for 4.3 is 1.68 and gearing for 2.3 is like 1.9 or 2.0.

 

[SHickey]

Re: buying a used Cobra Drive??

Well,

I guess the gearing makes a difference so using an out drive geared for a different sized motor would not be advisable. Thank you all for the responses and I guess I will just be very careful and hope for the best.

SH