Re: OMC Cobra Kills shifting into reverse
This just means that your Electronic Shift Assist (ESA) is working when it should not.
The drive must be "torque loaded" for the the ESA to work properly. That is, the propeller must be in the water for it to be loaded. The Shift Dogs are cut in such a way to hold (and pull) the gears together when going into gear either reverse or forward.
When the system is torque loaded it requires a considerable force to pull the shift dogs apart. The torque must be interrupted when force is applied to disengage them. This is done by a mechanical-lever device (shift actuator) on the shift plate. It actuates a series of micro-switches when enough force is applied to the shift cable.
The ignition is then pulsed in such a way as to cause a momentary drop in torque on the dogs allowing them to be pulled apart. Once they are apart and the system is in neutral the ESA deactivates and the engine runs smoothly again.
If it becomes out of adjustment the ESA will activate when it shouldn't and will not activate when it should.
This will require you to either shut off the engine to get it out of gear, or will require a LOT of force to get it out of gear (which will damage the shift cable and linkage eventually)
If your idle speed is too high you'll wear out the dogs prematurely. If the idle speed is too low it will kill the engine when coming out of gear.
That publication explains it fairly well. The service manual is absolutely required too. Most boat dealers should know this. Since OMC is now gone there's a lot of techs that either don't know how to adjust them or don't want to waste their time with Cobras. Either find someone that absolutely knows what they're doing or learn how to do it yourself.
Don't take it to someone that will say: "Well we don't work on OMC anymore but we'll take a look$$$$$"
They will either break it or charge you a lot of money and then YOU will break it after they claim to have fixed it!
Good luck!
Rick
Thanks for the advice! I have a manual on order. I should add that shifting into reverse only kills the motor when it is under load, If I do it with the muffs on out of water all seems well. No trouble shifting and the motor does not kill. Any more thoughts are welcome. Thanks.
