Re: Please Help With My 4.3l Omc!!!
Howdy,
There's a very specific "thing" that shift assist should do.
Assuming the microswitches are adjusted, working properly, the shift plate is not corroded, the lower shift cable is in good condx and the drive is not jammed internally, AND when the drive is in gear and "loaded" (I.E.in the water),
There will be sufficient force to activate the ESA (electronic Shift Assist) when you try to go from FWD or REV back to NEUTRAL. Thats when it should be activating.
If the ESA is working properly and you activate it "manually" in neutral, I.E. by hand back at the shift plate, it should "Pulse" the ignition so as to produce a loping effect so the torque is reduced on the shift dogs.
During normal operation you're doing this by applying pressure towards NEUTRAL from FWD/REV and at one of the "Torque-LOWS" the pressure pulls the clutch-dogs apart and you go to NEUTRAL.
(Those "clutch dogs" are undercut slightly so that torque actually HOLDS them together so they cannot "pop" out of gear during normal operation)
If the switches are mal-adjusted, the ignition could be "pulsed all the time and the engine may lope all the time or not even run. If the ESA(or other associated wiring) is shorted, the engine will not run at all.
Assuming everything else is "ok", you might just need a new ESA.
I don't have an OMC service manual any more. (I only have a couple of OMG parts left ! (TG)
If you want to fix it yourself, You'll need the correct OEM OMC service manual. If you don't want to do it yourself, you need to find a service facility that is willing to work on OMC (And knows what the H3LL what they're doing!!) OMC has been gone now more than 10 years and many dealers just don't want to mess with them because their people are not trained on them and the service work keeps coming back.
Incidentally, have a look at the following:
http://www.hastings.org/~stuart/cobra/
Good luck!
Rick
