Re: Let's play "What is leaking from my boat??"
Keep in mind, it's a 16 year old boat. You really don't know how it was maintained much of its life. If you bought a 16 year old car, you'd probably have to put some serious cash into it to make it reliable. That's just the nature of the beast.
Mine is a little older, and in the time I've had it, I had to have several seals replaced on the drive, the impeller we do at least every other year, I had the bellows, gimble bearing, and trim lines replaced (cut by barnicles, salt water moored). On the engine I changed the manifolds about 3 seasons ago and replace the thermostat every season. For a boat that was 14 years old when I got it, to me that's really not bad. Nature of the beast.
for the complete treatise on the Cobra shifting problems, search for the Stuart Hastings website. It'll tell all you need to know and then some. Best thing you can do is find a tech that knows Cobras, and stick with them to get all the bugs out of it. Once it's debugged you can do much of the maintenance yourself. That's what I did with mine.
