My poor cobra :(

What a bummer of a weekend. What was supposed to be a tune up for a 3-day wakeboarding vacation to one of the region's sweetest lakes turned into this...<br /><br />Ever since we got the boat (about a year ago), it's had an intermittent "clunk" in the drive only at low throttle, just before getting on plane. It happened so infrequently that I didn't think much of it, and when I DID ask people who are fairly knowledgeable about OMC about it I never got much of an answer, and certainly nothing about needing to have it looked at ASAP.<br /><br />I read through some of Stuart's OMC website and I can even remember saying to myself, "Well, mine doesn't take THAT much force to go in and out of gear." in hindsight, maybe it did. <br /><br />We had it out last night and it finally happened. The dreaded "clunk" became regular - once a minute or so. Then all of a sudden it completely let loose - no more gears.<br /><br />Got it off the water and removed the lwr unit drain plug -- there were a few shavings - wonderful . We proceeded to disassemble the lwr unit. The gear teeth themselves look fine, but it appears the infamous clutch-dog has had the edges of the teeth shaved off. Which leads me to believe it may indeed have been a simple cable mis-adjustment that caused all this trouble.<br /><br />I'm having the pro's reassemble it. They said the damage is not that bad compared to some Omc's they've seen, but as of now it's going to be a complete lower gearset replacement.<br /><br />The good news is we found a NEW set on ebay for $185 shipped as opposed to the typical $480 at dougrussell.com et al. The bad news is we're looking at about $350 for labor, plus another $60 or so for the seal kit.<br /> <br />The moral of the story...don't slack off on the maintennance of your OMC. If you're concerned about the way it's shifting AT ALL. Pay the $100 and have it checked out rather than the $500, or $800 or $1000 to have the gears replaced.

Re: My poor cobra

Your cobra needs a new gear set and clutch dog and make sure the shift cable is working properly. Once its jumped out of gear three times the clutch dog and forward gear is junk. Very common problem on Cobra drives. There is a new design gear set for Cobras.

Re: My poor cobra

yes, the cables will definitely be getting re-adjusted as well.<br /><br />I'm not in a situation that I can afford to dump hundreds of dollars into my toys all the time (which is why I disassembled it myself - I've never done that before but it wasn't that tough of a job). So if I'm going to be paying to have it done it's going to be done right.

Re: My poor cobra

Well - finally got the bill. New lower gearset cost me a little under $200 (a steal), and the bill from the mechanic was a little under $600 including a new impeller, seal kit, and re-adjustment of the shifting system. So the total cost was a bit shy of $800. Incidentally, the mechanic told me the shift cable adjustment wasn't even close, so it's possible a $100 check-up might have prevented this headache.<br /><br />I sound like a broken record, but if you have a cobra, don't slack off on the maintenance. It will catch up to you sooner or later.

Re: My poor cobra

Liquid_force.Thanks for all the info.You've convinced me to spend a $100 bucks to check it out.Hope others read this and get the picture too.<br />Pay a little now OR pay a lot later

Re: My poor cobra

Cool.<br /><br />Not trying to scare anyone away from their OMC's. As long as things are shifting smoothly then all is well, but if you're having to force it into/out of gear or you're getting the occasional clunk I would definitely recommend having it looked at.