omc reverse Help

[nickinhoutx]

Hi all new here and new to boating so i apologize in advance if i sound like a rookie, So a friend of mine gives me his 89 omc corsica sunbird cause his dad had a heart attack and had to get rid of the boat , boat had not been run in 2 years so i send it to a shop in Houston to have the maintenance up dated so to speak , he let me know that the boat needed throttle cables no bigi i figure , shop takes care of it , needless to say shop ripes me off of need this fixed that fixes , not knowing much , i trust the shop to fix everything that needs immediate fixing , no problem since i planed on taking my family out , Better safe than sorry , i put the boat in the water a couple of times , start noticing Throttle was having a hard time going in reverse , would work sometimes ,sometimes not , problem gets worst after putting the boat in water about 3-4 times send it back to the shop , asked the guy to fix it cost more , no problem back in water back at shop around 2 times , 3rd time i take my wife out , problems again except this time while coming in to dock wife tries to get out of boat as going in reverse is giving me problems AGAIN, mind u i am being extremely cautious wife puts one leg on dock so boat don't bump against dock BIG MISTAKE , as i go to put it in reverse boat lunges forward , BREAKS WIFES LEG , so after spending around $3000 on boat added a hospital bill she snapped all the bones from her toe to the ankle , boat sits for about 3 years and finally i get bold enough to go close to the boat without getting shot by her , get it maintained this time from a different shop , asked the guy to fix throttle problem says no problem $700 for everything , i am the best in the bus says the mechanic , OK fix it i say , get the boat back , put it in the water works one time now please someone tell me should i just shoot the thing , the boat has good compression hauls A@$ but i just cant get someone to fix the reverse problem , I have changed the cables twice , the new shop said just bring it back in he will try and fix the problem no extra charge . What are my options with this problems . Can one of you boat GURUS please help .Appreciate U r patience sorry for the long post . Afraid to sell it to someone don't want anyone getting hurt..

 

[Don S]

Re: omc reverse Help

There are TWO shift cables. One from the helm to the engine, the other from the engine to the outdrive. Which one was changed?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: omc reverse Help

Also sounds like the shift interrupter(ESA) is not working properly.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: omc reverse Help

the new shop said just bring it back in he will try and fix the problem no extra charge .

sounds pretty good to me

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: omc reverse Help

My 1990 OMC had the same problem with reverse, I found the lower shift cable had a busted cable sheath, you could get in gear and neutral but no reverse. I bought a cable for around 100.00 and installed and adjusted it myself refering to the Cobra service manual.
If you want it fixed right, get a manual and do it yourself. If I had paid a shop to perform all the work I've done myself the cost probably would have added to up to more than I paid for the whole boat. 3500.00 by the way was what I paid for a 1990 20' chaparral 5.8 liter V8 OMC Cobra with trailer, at the time of purchase I had no idea that OMC was out of business, had I known that I would have passed on this boat, but I had to make the best of it and have had pretty good luck with it once I got the bugs worked out.

 

[Don S]

Re: omc reverse Help

Also sounds like the shift interrupter(ESA) is not working properly.

The ESA shouldn't be needed going into gear, but if he can't get it out of gear without some serious pressure on the shifter, then yes, it could be the ESA or a shift interrupt switch.

 

[nickinhoutx]

Re: omc reverse Help

Well the reverse works sometimes and sometimes does not when i put it in neutral then when i go to reverse sometimes it feels like the throttle is sticking , also when we tried the boat at the shop it worked fine , i don't know much about it but it seems like the box that the throttle leaver attaches to has a problem in it , also both the cables have been change , is the throttle supposed to feel kinda hard just before it engages in gear ? or is the thing supposed to feel smooth , kinda like a car throttle ? Is there a way for me to change the whole throttle system ? would it be cost efficient .

 

[Don S]

Re: omc reverse Help

Sounds like you have the throttle starting to engage before it actually gets fully into gear. If you have both new shift cables and a new throttle cable, then you either have things way out of adjustment, or the control box could be worn or have bad bushings in it. There is also a height adjustment on the shift rod on the drive.
Basically what you (or your mechanic) needs to do is start all over. Make sure the control is ok, then adjust everything "BY THE BOOK" and make sure every thing is happening at the proper time.