having trouble feeding new outdrive cable omc cobra

[bfd72]

Hello all, im new here, but this is a great site anyhow, im replacing the cable that runs from engine to the outdrive(1988 malibu skier w/omc cobra) i got it all apart fairly smooth ,though the old cable was a bit hard to get through the, approx. 1 inch diameter hose in which the shift cable go,s inside, to the inside of the transom i guessed it was stiff to get through, as old cable was slightly tweaked, and was definitely the culprit with shifting problem. the new cable will not feed through the guide hose /sheath. i have temporarily taken as many of the ends off the new cable as possible to minimize the restrictions and it still wont feed through this hose is very hard to get to after the first 2 1/2 ft, it runs under the engine etc. and then to the transom, where access to the hose is almost impossible as far as i can see ive tried running the cable through both ways, to no avail. could something be blocking inside of the hose if i could get to the last half of it i could tell better why it wont feed thru the hose appears to be in good shape and is airtight and not bent anywhere any tricks or advise greatly appreciated, dont want to have to lift or pull motor to acces this hose if at all possible. much thanks!!!!.bfd72

 

[lakelivin]

Re: having trouble feeding new outdrive cable omc cobra

bfd,<br /><br />I had the same issues. first of all make sure you've disconnected everything from the cable you can. the 'rods' at the cable ends are threaded and can be removed if you haven't already.<br /><br />2 things helped me. one was straightening out the hose inside the engine compartment before doing the threading. i could access it and maneuver it around stuff so it was fairly straight once inside the boat. given your engine setup you may or may not be able to do the same.<br /><br />the second thing that helped was coating the cable jacket with a 'personal lube' (like AstroGlide). It's a water based, very slippery lubricant available at Wal-Mart or a drugstore. <br /><br />What was even harder was getting the ribbed black cable jacket through the tube. I used the lube and an electricians wire puller. put the wire puller thgough first, attached the cable jacket to the wire puller. I poked a couple of holes through the jacket, put a bent paperclip through it, bent the paperclip around the end of the cable puller, and duct taped the joint together. Then you can have one persoon pull from one end while another person guides the jacket around the cable and pushes from the other end.<br /><br />a bit of a pita, but hopefullly you'll get it without too much trouble.<br /><br />good luck.

 

[bfd72]

Re: having trouble feeding new outdrive cable omc cobra

i was finally able to get the cable to feed thru. Well ,it turns out after doing some similar stuff to your suggestions i realized the hose was actually being pinched under another small fuel type hose, & the engine block, that must have inadvertantly got placed on top of the big shift cable hose during a engine swap ,some years ago when the stock motor froze and cracked in a below freezing, freak cold snap here in redding california. (brother in law owned boat back then and did,nt witerize it as supposed to, thank goodness for insurance $5000 for new 4.3 Kodiak engine ) any ways after finally discovering this with a flaslight and a mirror and alot of head scratching, i had to remove two back motor mount nuts and remove exhaust elbow hose clamps then lifted the back of engine slightly, then rerouted the misplaced small hose then i attempted once again to pull the new cable thru the hose and "voila" it came right through. i did use a simmilar technique as you mentioned only instead i had some very heavy guage weedeater line for the push kind ,of weedeaters (tough stuff,but thin and flexible, wear gloves though !!!!) laying around, and i fed it thru first then duct taped the new cable to the weedeater line and sprayed some LPS inside the hose and gave it a pull, it came thru like butter, the real problem was the pinched hoses stacked on each other it turns out, but had it been a straight forward swap without the hidden glitches i discovered eventually, all the techniques you suggested were perfect solutions and a must, to get the cable through the hose you almost have to have something set up to help fish the cable through it would be very difficult to just push the cable through i believe ,in any case ,well with that said, much thanks to you, "lakelivin", for sharin your technique do hope it will also save someone else alot of grief with their cable swap. thanks again BFD72

 

[lakelivin]

Re: having trouble feeding new outdrive cable omc cobra

No problem. I'm a beginner & pretty much just get help from this site, glad I could give back a little. Now good luck getting the adjustments right, lol!