Gear shift for 92, 5.8L Cobra on a Four Winn

Hi All,

New member to the board and has learned a lot from seaching and reading on the boat I am purchasing. I am in the process of buying a 92 Four Winns 205 Sundowner from a 2nd owner and will have the boat in 10 days. During the test run, the 92 5.8L Cobra has performed well only has black smoke on cold start, disappeared in 2 min. The shift was alright but have to us a little effort on wiggling the handle back and forth a few times before totally shifting back to the neutral from forward or reverse.

I read some topics on the old model of Cobra problem on gear shifting and recalls. I can't find info from the 1st owner and like to ask the board to help on what can I do to make the shifting smoother.

Thanks in advance.

Frank

Re: Gear shift for 92, 5.8L Cobra on a Four Winn

Howdy,

If you have not committed to buying the boat I would suggest that you keep looking for a boat either with a Mercruiser engine/drive or a newer one with a Volvo Penta SX engine/drive.

It's either a 91 or a 92 model year Cobra. You'll have to check the model number to be sure since many boat manufacturers frequently use "last years" model engines and drives in boats.

If it's a 91 it will be a "Dog-clutch" Cobra. Which have many problems that while not insurmountable, can be a real hassle. (do a search here )

If it's a 92 it might be a "transition" Cone clutch Cobra which could be better....but since OMC is out of business it's still sort of a "Dinosaur".

Around 1994 or so time frame, OMC partnered up with Volvo (Cobra SX) and from then on the drives were essentially Volvo (and are still completely supported by Volvo)

There's so many boats out there for sale in this "wonderful" economy, that you can certainly find a nice boat for maybe the same money that has an engine and drive that most Marine facilities will gladly service AND you can find all the parts for without having to cruise the wrecking yards......


Sorry about that....Just some friendly advice....



Regards,


Rick

Re: Gear shift for 92, 5.8L Cobra on a Four Winn

Replace and adjust the lower shift cable.

Re: Gear shift for 92, 5.8L Cobra on a Four Winn

Thanks for the reply.

I have already committed to the purchase and l would like to give it a try on change the shift cable on lower unit. Could you give me the instruction or direct me to the instruction on how to make the adjustment?

Thanks again.

Frank

Re: Gear shift for 92, 5.8L Cobra on a Four Winn

cheers731 said:

Thanks for the reply.

I have already committed to the purchase and l would like to give it a try on change the shift cable on lower unit. Could you give me the instruction or direct me to the instruction on how to make the adjustment?

Thanks again.

Frank

Click to expand...

Ok,

Well then you need to buy an OEM service manual. OMC Cobra manuals will have the exact model number of the units covered inside.

I bought my manual from Ebay. There's several retailers that sell them. You may even be able to get one from a Volvo dealer. ( I just did a search in ebay motors and got 24 hits for "OMC Cobra manual")

Most people will advise you to avoid Seloc and Clymer manuals.

You also should carefully read the following info: http://www.hastings.org/~stuart/cobra/





Good luck!


Rick

Re: Gear shift for 92, 5.8L Cobra on a Four Winn

Thank you all so much....
Yes, I will check the model carefully and get the matching manual to get myself familiarize with this I/O system.

Thanks again,

Frank

Re: Gear shift for 92, 5.8L Cobra on a Four Winn

Cheers, I bought a Chaparral with a 5.8 and cobra drive, it was before I even knew of this forum, had I known the whole story of the OMC bankrupt issue I would have never bought it but I'm glad I didn't know because it has been a dependable set up, I changed the lower cable and do all the necessary maintainence myself, yes you absolutely need the factory manual to perform the adjustments, words can't explain.