OMC shifting question

[ryanorr280]

hi, my name is ryan, i am new to the forum, and would like to say thanks for all the information i have gotten with searching here. i have a 88 balyliner cobra 2250, 5.7 OMC cobra, i got it at end of season last year. it had no reverse and a leak into hull. had a boat shop adjust cables, now has reverse, with no forward(had it before). took it to another shop, they say it needs a lower unit due to gears. quoted like 4k to replace it, i decided to mess with it myself. i believe leak is coming in around transom, i have transom gasket kit, bellows kit, lower shift cable(read post that describes adjustment, found mine to be stiffer than 2.5 lbs) ordered. my main question is will i need to re-align engine after removal for transom seals, or will it sit back in original position, and do you think in your opinion the gears are actually bad, or just needs adjustment? sorry post is so long, i just wanted to let you know what i do about history of boat, thankyou in advance.

 

[Liquid_force]

Re: OMC shifting question

First thing that jumps out at me -- 4K is freaking ridiculous.
IF you have trashed your gears I would think $1500 would cover it, start to finish.

$4k sounds like they'd just be charging you for a new drive and bolting it on - which IMO is completely unnecessary, especially when it COULD be as simple as a shift cable problem.

First thing I would do is pull the lower unit drain plug and check for metal shavings (it should be magnetic), but the shop may have done that already and wiped it clean.

Did you get any grinding when you lost rev/fwd?
When our drive failed we were getting itermittent slipping (clunking while underway) which got worse and worse over time and eventually GRRRROOOUUUUNNNND to a stop - I thought they'd be shredded, the shop told us they really weren't in that bad of shape and could almost have been reused.
I just wonder if your gears really ARE shot.

One other thought -- your lower shift cable -- is it red or black? If it's black - simply replacing it with the updated red one and having a competent shop adjust it correctly could solve your problems, but I would have thought the shop that checked it out (if not you) would have thought of that already.

 

[evilratgirl]

Re: OMC shifting question

Hey Ryan, sounds like someone is trying to take ya for a ride.

First, don't get excited about the cobra naysayers that like to trash the cobra. It really is a good drive.

Second, if ya had had foward before the socalled adjustment it's most likely still there. Liquid has the right start, red vs black lower shift cable. Even at that it looks like you've got a new one ordered. Good idea. I did basically the same this spring. Cable, gimbel, u-joints, bellows.

Sounds like you've looked at the Hastings site and hopfully have the OEM manual. When you have the drive off move the drives shift lever up and down and this will tell you if you have foward and reverse. The rest is getting the cable mesurements right to get FULL SMOOTH travel.

Yes the alignment is really a good idea.

 

[ryanorr280]

Re: OMC shifting question

thanks for all your input guys, it does have the red cable, but i have a new one on the way due to it being stiff. i have drained/removed the drive already, it had some metal shavings in it, not too bad, but it was there. i have moved the shift lever up and down to check shifting in drive, seems to work fine with drive on hoist, can not get it to slip with one person turning driveshaft and another holding prop. oh, and i did already get a factory service manual. it did have a grinding noise, i bought the boat like this, so i do not know if it started failing slowly for sure. the guy told me that he bought a new boat, this one sat for a couple years, he decided to sell it, backed it into water, and it had no reverse, that is all i know.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: OMC shifting question

It sounds like the lower shift cable was seriously out of adjustment. It doesn't have to be very far out to give you one gear and nothing/grinding in the other gear....The ESA will either activate when you don't want it to or not at the right time too.

Using the service manual procedures and the Hastings article you should be able to get it adjusted. If you take it to a dealer ENSURE that they know something about the early Cobras. Don't take it to someone that will say "well we don't work on OMC, but we'll take a $$L00K$$" ... If you do that they will charge you a lot of money and it'll still break!


Good luck



Rick

thanks for all your input guys, it does have the red cable, but i have a new one on the way due to it being stiff. i have drained/removed the drive already, it had some metal shavings in it, not too bad, but it was there. i have moved the shift lever up and down to check shifting in drive, seems to work fine with drive on hoist, can not get it to slip with one person turning driveshaft and another holding prop. oh, and i did already get a factory service manual. it did have a grinding noise, i bought the boat like this, so i do not know if it started failing slowly for sure. the guy told me that he bought a new boat, this one sat for a couple years, he decided to sell it, backed it into water, and it had no reverse, that is all i know.

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: OMC shifting question

my main question is will i need to re-align engine after removal for transom seals, or will it sit back in original position.

As this is a new to you boat I would definitely buy, borrow or rent an alignment tool, the drive will go back on the same way but how do you know that's OK without checking it first? Can be found on ebay quite often for a reasonable price. Get the tool and check it, adjust it if necessary and then you'll have peace of mind and not worry about taking out your coupler.

 

[ryanorr280]

Re: OMC shifting question

thanks for all your help guys, i really appreciate it. i will get the alighment tool and hopefully this will fix my problem. oh, by the way, does anyone know where there is a shop in oklahoma that is familiar with OMC, and does good work(for future things). both places i have tried have not impressed me much. thanks again