What really is bad about OMC drives?

What makes OMC sterndrives the ones to avoid? I understand that they don't make them anymore but my local Evinrude dealer still can get parts that I ask for for my 3.0L Series 400 and their service department still has the special OMC tools along the wall. GLM has new gears and bearings. Were the pre-Cobra drives bad? Were the Cobra drives bad? I've read about them eating gears due to misadjusted shift cables but fine other than that. And no King Cobra 460 manifolds available but I searched and the aftermarket has come up with them.

Are the gears soft in them? Is the lubrication in them bad and they don't last long? Aside from seals and a stretched shift cable mine's been fine.

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

This topic has kind of been beaten to death. The general outcome is that OMC has been out of business for many years and while most parts are available, you sometimes need to look pretty hard to find them or pay a premium for them. Also, mechanics are typically hard or impossible to find for them (especially for the Stringer) and mist mechanics wont touch them. The latter is generally not a problem if you're mechanically inclined.

I've been generally happy with the performance and reliability of my Stringer 400 & really haven't run into any problems that seem any worse to deal with than what I read from the Merc & Volvo folks on here.

Bottom line is that OMC is obsolete.

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

Semi off topic but funny - when I was launching yesterday, a guy watching on the side saw me drop my Stinger drive and I heard him comment to his girlfriend how he wished he had a drive like mine that went down that fast . I told him that indeed he did not, but it was funny to see someone admiring a 25+ yr old tilt mechanism that is one of the biggest complaint points I see around the Stringer system

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

Yeah, topic beaten to death. But the biggest limitation of your Stringer drive is just what superbenk is talking about. You can't "trim" it. It's all the way down to run. You tilt it up, but you can't run it that way.
That guy who wanted his drive to go down fast is just clueless. If he knew all the advantages of his trim-able drive, he'd keep quiet.

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

TilliamWe said:

You can't "trim" it

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sure you can

the whole engine/drive assy moves and is how the trim works on a stringer

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

dubs283 said:

sure you can

the whole engine/drive assy moves and is how the trim works on a stringer

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I've seen that in the manual...an electric mechanism that raises and lowers the entire engine and drive on the front mount, but mine doesn't have it and I havent seen one otherwise. Is it worthwhile to find one and add it?

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

What makes OMC sterndrives the ones to avoid? I understand that they don't make them anymore but my local Evinrude dealer still can get parts that I ask for for my 3.0L Series 400 and their service department still has the special OMC tools along the wall.

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Superbenk is right......It HAS been beaten to death!!

And you are also right. You can NOW get 460 manifolds, (don't know about risers yet) and Sierra has couplers again!!

If I had kept my 460, I'd be back in business!! (after being "shut-down" for what?......4 years? (oh yeah.....I would be paying DOUBLE for those manifolds/risers/coupler etc too over "everybody else") but who cares......gas is double right?

Never mind the lower shift cable/ESA system takes extraordinary skill and patience to adjust, and (if you cannot do it yourself) time to find someone else even willing to do it. (a lot of the people that went to the OMC schools are dead!)

If you have one and are familiar enough with OMC procedures and techniques to fix it, you're good!

Were the pre-Cobra drives bad? Were the Cobra drives bad?

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They're not "bad" for people that know what they're doing and can scrounge parts if needed....

Most of us that "know", just suggest that first boat owners or people that will not be able to do their own work, steer clear of OMC because of the well known (parts/service) problems........ (After all, most people just want to go boating with family and friends........they usually don't want to work on them all the time)

Oh, and there's that little thing of the company being GONE for more than 10 years.....


Even the designs weren't bad..... Don't forget.... in general, pretty much all the drives out there (Merc/Volvo OMC) were designed by the original Kiekhaefer Mercury people....


Regards,


Rick

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

F14CRAZY said:

What makes OMC sterndrives the ones to avoid? I understand that they don't make them anymore but my local Evinrude dealer still can get parts that I ask for for my 3.0L Series 400 and their service department still has the special OMC tools along the wall. GLM has new gears and bearings. Were the pre-Cobra drives bad? Were the Cobra drives bad? I've read about them eating gears due to misadjusted shift cables but fine other than that. And no King Cobra 460 manifolds available but I searched and the aftermarket has come up with them.

Are the gears soft in them? Is the lubrication in them bad and they don't last long? Aside from seals and a stretched shift cable mine's been fine.

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If maintained, Cobra drives are fine. Parts in CA are east to get too. The earlier Cobra drives, I think pre 1989, had problems but they finally got taken care of.

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

dubs283 said:

sure you can

the whole engine/drive assy moves and is how the trim works on a stringer

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That was NOT standard equipment. That was an option. And a it still doesn't trim nearly as much as a Mercruiser. Fact is no Stringer drive can be trimmed/tilted up high enough to run in "shallow" water, like a Merc or VP.

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

You technically CAN run a Stringer partially tilted (not just trimmed) for short periods of time under slow speed (ie, idling), but it is hard on the ball gears. As I understand it, e u-joints on shaft driven drives can also be damaged running for too long and too fast when tilted up too far. Perhaps you get a bit more safe trim out of a Merc or Volvo, but I wouldn't say that's a defining difference or bad mark n e Stringer. The Stringer system of trim certainly seems simpler (at least on my little 4cyl w/ SelecTrim jack screw).

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

bank, you really have been drinking OMC flavored kool-aid! hahahah! (way to look on the bright side, btw!)

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

TilliamWe said:

bank, you really have been drinking OMC flavored kool-aid! hahahah! (way to look on the bright side, btw!)

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Not really. I'd love to have a Merc drive instead of my Stringer. Just correcting what seems to me as false information or at least only semi-correct.

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?



I have been waiting a month to use this image.

Re: What really is bad about OMC drives?

superbenk said:

Not really. I'd love to have a Merc drive instead of my Stringer. Just correcting what seems to me as false information or at least only semi-correct.

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So, just paint it black. Most people won't recognize the difference.

Randy