King cobra 1992 liberator

Crest1998

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I have the opportunity to buy a very low hour, mint 1992 liberator with a 454...however the drive is a omc king cobra. From the research I've done, parts are impossible to come by. Should I buy it or pass?
 

jerryjerry05

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Some of the King Cobras were a mix of Volvo and OMC.
The drive was a cone clutch from Volvo and a pretty good drive.
The problem is the parts are NLA and nobody wants to work on them.
Pass.
 

HT32BSX115

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I have the opportunity to buy a very low hour, mint 1992 liberator with a 454...however the drive is a omc king cobra. From the research I've done, parts are impossible to come by. Should I buy it or pass?

You're absolutely RIGHT!

Don't do it!!

Unless you can get it for a "part-out" price!

That drive is basically "made of un-obtanium"............If it's an Electronic ignition, EFI engine, those components are NLA, and the raw water pump impeller is no longer available unless you buy ridiculously priced "new-old-stock" impellers from people who find them and are basically price-gouging buyers!

If you can get the boat cheap enough, you can pull the engine, gimbal mount and drive, sell all the "un-obtanium" parts to others who made the mistake of buying their boats before they found out, (keep the 454 long block engine btw)........................

THEN find either a Mercruiser Bravo III, Bravo I (or Volvo DPS) drive and gimbal, + Mercruiser (or Volvo) engine accy's, and make yourself a neet boat!

I bought my 1987 Liberator ( +OMG 460 King Kobra) I removed all the OMC "stuff" and replaced with a 1997 , 7.4L + Bravo III (complete) setup that I bought off of craigslist for approx $5K.......

THEN, I sold all the OMC "stuff piece by piece (over 3 years or so) for approx $3600......And I still have the 15"x17p, 14.5'x 20p SS props and the oil and fuel filter mounts that I'm using on another project!

If you're not capable of doing the above stuff, STEER CLEER!


Cheers,


Rick
 

Bondo

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Apr 17, 2002
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71,357
You're absolutely RIGHT!

Don't do it!!

Unless you can get it for a "part-out" price!

That drive is basically "made of un-obtanium"............If it's an Electronic ignition, EFI engine, those components are NLA, and the raw water pump impeller is no longer available unless you buy ridiculously priced "new-old-stock" impellers from people who find them and are basically price-gouging buyers!

If you can get the boat cheap enough, you can pull the engine, gimbal mount and drive, sell all the "un-obtanium" parts to others who made the mistake of buying their boats before they found out, (keep the 454 long block engine btw)........................

THEN find either a Mercruiser Bravo III, Bravo I (or Volvo DPS) drive and gimbal, + Mercruiser (or Volvo) engine accy's, and make yourself a neet boat!

I bought my 1987 Liberator ( +OMG 460 King Kobra) I removed all the OMC "stuff" and replaced with a 1997 , 7.4L + Bravo III (complete) setup that I bought off of craigslist for approx $5K.......

THEN, I sold all the OMC "stuff piece by piece (over 3 years or so) for approx $3600......And I still have the 15"x17p, 14.5'x 20p SS props and the oil and fuel filter mounts that I'm using on another project!

If you're not capable of doing the above stuff, STEER CLEER!


Cheers,


Rick

Ayuh,.... A "Good Deal" on it would be a Cherry hull, on a new wagon, for Free, delivered,...... with the paperwork,...
 

bruceb58

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Mar 5, 2006
Messages
30,751
Those are cone drives but they are not Volvo cone drives. Just take a look at how the shifting is done and how the raw water pump is on the drive.

Your picture is too small to really see but see that cover that bolts onto the side of the upper gear housing? That is where the shifting is done on this older OMC drive. The Volvo SX did not have this.

For the OMC 454 engine, 1996 was the first time the Volvo drive was mated to it. in 1994 the smaller engines got the Volvo drive.
 
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HT32BSX115

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Dec 8, 2005
Messages
10,083


Those drives were NOT Volvo drives. Those are the "Interim" OMC drives that preceded the "Joint" SX drive.

The main difference is the raw water pump mounted on the "back of the drive as shown in the following picture. There is little or no parts commonality with the later SX drives..........and the raw water pump parts are NLA as are other parts.
OMC_interim_zps1c63e28c.jpg
 

bruceb58

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Mar 5, 2006
Messages
30,751
Here is a 92 King Cobra

92_OMCKC%20%28Custom%29.gif



Here is a 96 OMX Volvo SX

96_OMCSX%20%28Custom%29.gif
 
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