Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

[arield]

HI
new to site, my family want to purchase a 81 sea ray with a omc 800 stringer gear drive. the boat is in good shape, except and the owner told us. that there are times. the out drive would not tilt up and down. And he would manually loosen 3 bolt and manually raise the drive. also in the process his 50 amp fuse would blow, and the fuse will need to be replaced and once the fuse is replace it may tilt again, and work normally. during the viewing of this boat. the tilt operated just fine, it went up and down. but the owner said, it will work perfectly but there is also a 10% chance that you will blow a fuse and the tilt will not work and that maybe the time when you are at a ramp and trailoring the boat. what are my chances of fixing this type of issue. The owner suspect that it is the gear box assembly, that runs the half moon shaft gear that lowers and raises the unit. like i said " he suspect". could he be right? or is it something else, What would blow a fuse, so obviously if the fuse is blow then there could be some fault electrical unit issue. and the tilt motor would not work, so i need help. please advice. any information is greatly appreciated

 

[LAC_STS]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

OMC has been out of business's for almost 25 years. Parts for the OMC Cobra drive are available but parts for OMC Stringer drives and your drive are either NLA or $$$$.

I wouldn't buy a boat with an OMC in it. Maybe a Cobra one if it were a hell of a steal. Def not one with a stringer or king cobra.

There are show stopping parts that you might not be able to find or will have to pay huge bucks for.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

my family want to purchase a 81 sea ray with a omc 800 stringer gear drive.

Ayuh,... Quite simply,.. DON'T...

There's Lotsa boats out there for sale,...
Don't buy a Stringer drive, Period...

 

[superbenk]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

I have that drive & the tilt mechanism is easily the most finicky part of the whole setup. I agree with the others about not buying it.

However, if you do buy it, there are a number of parts available to fix most of the problems with the tilt mechanism through aftermarket suppliers (Sierra, GLM, etc). You likely have a mess inside the tilt clutch housing and need new bushings around the shaft. It could also be in the worm gear shaft (either the hammer blow coupler the connects the shaft to the motor or maybe the shaft itself is worn on the end allowing it to slop & bind). Worst case, the motor is bad & it'll cost close to $200 to fix. There's other things that could be wrong, but those are what come to mind first. Seems like something is binding somewhere.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

intermittent fuse blowing/intermittent operation says maybe the motor has a sticky spot, or the trunnions need grease, or both - but search it up- must be 100 threads about stringer tilt issues here at iboats - cleaning wiring up and inspecting clutch compartment are usually first steps

I agree - don't buy it if you haven't already

If you want a stringer - buy mine! please

 

[clerihew82]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

HAHA or mine!

 

[arield]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

thank you for your reply. through out the day, i have read ready other forums, and all say the same. luckily we did not hand of the cash at the day we saw it.. ha ha ha "buy mine" good one!!.. now back to square 1, keep on looking for a decent boat. this one would off been a decent boat except for this issue. sure would hate to be on a ramp when it give out. and i sure can image the mob of angry boaters waiting for my $ss to get out of the ramp. no thanks.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

now back to square 1, keep on looking for a decent boat.

Ayuh,.... Two things to Avoid,....

Any boat that says OMC anywhere on it,....
And,...
A Mercruiser, with a 470 motor....

 

[QC]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

I was just going to post "cool an OMC thread that ended peacefully", and then Bondo had to mention the 470 . . .

 

[Don S]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

OMC has been out of business's for almost 25 years.

Has it been 25 years since 1998

 

[jeepzj94]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

Wow, this is ironic, but I went and bought this same boat that the OP is talking about today!! He's right, it is an extremely clean boat and in great shape other than the sketchy tilt issue. But the owner showed me today, and it did go up and down with no problem. To me it sounds like it shouldn't be too hard of a fix. Like some one else said, it sounds like it is just binding on occasion. So, of course, I have to ask now why OMC stringers should be an instant don't buy situation?? Are they not very good quality, like parts breaking all the time? Or what?

 

[LAC_STS]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

Read the thread.......

 

[jeepzj94]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

Read the thread.......

Wow, great answer!! Did you read it? Cause all it talks about is the tilt issue and parts being scarce and/or expensive for the OMC stringers. No matter though, I did my research after reading what everyone wrote about to stay away from them. I still feel like I got a great deal on a very nice boat.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

Wow, this is ironic, but I went and bought this same boat that the OP is talking about today!! He's right, it is an extremely clean boat and in great shape other than the sketchy tilt issue. But the owner showed me today, and it did go up and down with no problem. To me it sounds like it shouldn't be too hard of a fix. Like some one else said, it sounds like it is just binding on occasion. So, of course, I have to ask now why OMC stringers should be an instant don't buy situation?? Are they not very good quality, like parts breaking all the time? Or what?

Ayuh,... Other than they're Antiques, 'n parts are gettin' hard to find,..??

It only takes 1, NLA part to break, 'n you've got a pile of parts, rather than a boat...

Enjoy it...

 

[jeepzj94]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

Ayuh,... Other than they're Antiques, 'n parts are gettin' hard to find,..??

It only takes 1, NLA part to break, 'n you've got a pile of parts, rather than a boat...

Enjoy it...

Thanks Bond-o, that's the simple answer I needed.

 

[LAC_STS]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

Wow, great answer!! Did you read it? Cause all it talks about is the tilt issue and parts being scarce and/or expensive for the OMC stringers. No matter though, I did my research after reading what everyone wrote about to stay away from them. I still feel like I got a great deal on a very nice boat.

Like I said in post #2

"OMC has been out of business's for almost 25 years. Parts for the OMC Cobra drive are available but parts for OMC Stringer drives and your drive are either NLA or $$$$."


There ya go.

 

[infideltarget]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

Avoid,....

Any boat that says OMC anywhere on it,....

sheeesh....you guys should really just go ahead and start a new thread titled "reasons why we hate OMC and you should too" and get it over with, so we can stop seeing this in every thread that mentions a question about them. Stringers and Cobras are two very different critters, and should not be lumped together in the "OMC sucks" bin. I hate GM, but that doesnt mean every GM product sucks...even if they do. Lots of NLA parts on anything that is not currently in production...boats, cars, anything. Should we just trash 'em all because of that?

 

[superbenk]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

Like I said in post #2

"OMC has been out of business's for almost 25 years. Parts for the OMC Cobra drive are available but parts for OMC Stringer drives and your drive are either NLA or $$$$."


There ya go.

Not to pick nits, but I believe it's closer to 12 years & most of the Stringer maintenance stuff is available through 3rd parties (Sierra, GLM, etc.) and don't cost any more than any other drive maintenance parts. Granted there are a number of parts which aren't available aftermarket which are much more difficult to find, but for the most part they seem to be out there still (either used, rebuilt or remanufactured) if you look around.

That being said, Stringer is still a 25 yr old drive. There's lots of reasons to avoid OMC, but there's no reason to exaggerate.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

there was actually a tilt quadrant bulletin back in the day - some would bind. You can mess with a grinder on it if you see any spots. or buy one of the dozen or so on ebay for a few bucks. I think the pitch of the gear teeth was actually the issue.
need to diagnose it first and do the general greasing and maintenance

 

[jeepzj94]

Re: Omc stern drive / TILT ISSUE

there was actually a tilt quadrant bulletin back in the day - some would bind. You can mess with a grinder on it if you see any spots. or buy one of the dozen or so on ebay for a few bucks. I think the pitch of the gear teeth was actually the issue.
need to diagnose it first and do the general greasing and maintenance

Yep, gonna take apart the whole tilt drive assembly tomorrow after I get the boat home, and see if I can diagnose the problem.