Removing 1988 OMC Cobra Outdrive help

skateboardin08

Recruit
Joined
Jul 6, 2012
Messages
2
I was out cruising today, went to switch into reverse and heard a bang. now it wont go into reverse and just makes a clicking sound. maybe stripped a gear. anyway i wanted to remove to outdrive to get a better look. anyone have some instructions for me? it looks pretty simple with just the 6 bolts.

any help is greatly appreciated
 

Rob the weekend warrior

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
May 24, 2012
Messages
32
Re: Removing 1988 OMC Cobra Outdrive help

easy sleazy-lust the 6 bolts and ur off to the races. The hard part is after you get the drive off, separated the upper and lower (also easy) got it all apart-easy, bought the gearset from ebay for an incredible low price of $279, but now put it together and set the preload on the ring/pinion gear cluster without that stupid tool is where it starts to get confusing. I would start with the old "take the lower shift cable off the motor bracket and try to manually shift with your have while a beer-swilling friend turns the prop" route before taking the outdrive out. If you are going to go after the lower gearset in your driveway, pack a lunch when you do cause it takes a little while.
 

skateboardin08

Recruit
Joined
Jul 6, 2012
Messages
2
Re: Removing 1988 OMC Cobra Outdrive help

well, little update. I have the lower unit off, now according to the manual i need quite a few special tools to take out the gears. anyone done this with just a standard tool set? I may just end up taking the lower unit to the marina to have the reverse gear replaced. (assuming that's the problem)

also, yes the forward works just fine. its just reverse
 

Rob the weekend warrior

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
May 24, 2012
Messages
32
Re: Removing 1988 OMC Cobra Outdrive help

yeeeah, I looked at it and figured that I could get to everything but the part in the assembly where you figure out the shim distance on the pinion gears. I looked and looked for specs as I have digital calipers so I could set it up if I knew what it was supposed to be, or even the exact length of that tool. If you find it let me know because I basically adjusted my linkage to hold fwd hard and its not slipping anymore but I know it will be back to haunt me. there is a guy selling the gearsets for 279 on ebay right now which is cheap.
 
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