OMC Cobra Bell-crank 1988

[ab59]

I just went out and took the transom cable loose at the bracket and performed the shifting test. there is equal travel from neutral in both reverse and forward gear. So my question would be does the control cable have to be equal distance as well ? If so then how do you adjust it and still wind up with equal throw ?

 

[ab59]

I went back to the Wolf articles and printed them out. One of the problems i keep having is gathering information from different places that are sometimes conflicting or unnecessarily complicated and difficult to understand. I will take the Wolf information out to the boat and follow , step by step , and see if this cures the problem. At least there are many pictures that show what they are talking about . Tomorrow will see .

 

[Lou C]

OK , here I go again getting this stuff out of order again. I went back and re read your post about adjustment and I see that I did not do some things. Once I adjusted the transom cable with the jigs I had thought no more adjustment was supposed to be made on that cable but if I am reading your post right , I was supposed to pull and push the end of the cable to check the throw on the bottom shift cable BEFORE I tried to adjust the control cable. Man , no wonder I got brain cramps , I keep getting things turned backwards trying to push past this .
So in the end I should test and adjust the lower ( transom) cable and check for even throw , right ? Once again I'm getting confused because somewhere I read that if you use the recommended jigs to set it up that you were not supposed to change any of the adjustment that the jigs set up.
God I'm hard headed any more , sometimes I think it would be easier to throw a pebble through a brick wall that to get new information into my brain.

Yes you adjust the transom shift cable and test it with the drive on, for equal throw in FWD and REV. If you got the adjustment 100% right on, the throw should be equal.

 

[Lou C]

I went back to the Wolf articles and printed them out. One of the problems i keep having is gathering information from different places that are sometimes conflicting or unnecessarily complicated and difficult to understand. I will take the Wolf information out to the boat and follow , step by step , and see if this cures the problem. At least there are many pictures that show what they are talking about . Tomorrow will see .

You're on the right track. It is confusing because the pix in the instructions may show a set up that is different from what you have. Where you are now, your transom shift cable seems to be right, so read through all the Wolf stuff till it sinks in and then have at it. I did everything by the book (shift rod height, transom cable, etc) and for it to work with the remote shifter, I had to adjust the remote cable. It would shift fine in FWD and grind in REV. After the adjustment it was fine.

 

[ab59]

Thanks Lou---one thing that I took for granted was the shift rod height . their was about 1/4 to 1/2 inch difference between the bell crank and the shift rod but since everything worked just fine before I took the outdrive off I did not think that it was major factor.Upon reassembly the drive slid right on with no problems . When shifting by hand with the transom cable un- attached to the engine side she shifts solidly into both forward and reverse so I guess it's alright ? I dunno.
I do not want to pull the outdrive apart to adjust the shift rod but if I can't get this adjusted right hen I will have to believe that the shift rod is the problem. Why would this need to be adjusted if it had not been damaged or replaced ?

thanks again for your continued support Lou.

 

[bruceb58]

Just so you know, OMC upgraded the bell crank in the early 90s so that the bushing that is exposed on the outside of the drive has a grease fitting. This allows grease to be forced into that cavity and it keeps water from entering and corroding everything. A very worthwhile upgrade. I did t to mine when I had it.

 

[ab59]

Hello Bruceb58 if I wind up keeping the boat I may go ahead and install one of those , sure sounds like a good upgrade. I did fill the cavity with waterproof marine grease before I reinstalled the outdrive though. I think it may have been you that told me about that last year so been doing sense .

thanks----

 

[ab59]

Well for what it's worth I have the drive shifting into both gears and Neutral now but I did not follow the directions that I just can't seem to understand. Although I took the day yesterday to gather and split wood for the house , last night and this morning I studied and took two different methods of adjustment out to the boat but just the unfamiliar terminology and the fact that the pictures were too dark to tell what they were talking about made me give up.
What I did do. After a few choice words and time to think , went back to the knowledge that the transom cable had to be right because I had used the jigs to set it up. I shifted the drive into neutral and after checking the prop for being free I then attempted to hook the transom cable to the bracket at the engine and saw that the lug for the cable did not line up , Soooo I just adjusted the upper control cable to make the bracket lug line up with the transom cable and hooked it up. It now shifts into both gears solidly and easily and hits Neutral with no problems. I dunno .

 

[Lou C]

Did you test it by having someone spin the prop, or with the engine running on the water hose? Usually if it locks in properly in both gears spinning the prop (good to have the helper shift it while you spin so you can feel it lock in) it will shift properly with it running. So you may have gotten it right the way you did it, but won't know 100% really till you run it on the water. Other points:
the idle speed should not be higher than 600 rpm
the ESA system must work for you to be able to shift out of gear in the water. On the water hose on land, no load on the prop so even if the ESA did not work, you could shift it out of gear into Neutral. That's why the only true test is in the water.

Did you mark the cable as I showed in my pic to measure the throw in each gear, on either side of neutral?

 

[ab59]

thanks for your reply Lou-- Yep , marked the cable end shift rod at neutral and then both reverse and Neutral and even after the the adjustment to make the transom cable line up , the measurements are even ! Don't quite understand how that happened but I'm glad it did . Shifts into and out of gears really easy as well.
Got to be honest , I am a little worried about the ESA being right but hopefully can test on the water soon . .
I still have to put the Holly back on and screw down some braces etc. so will be another week or two before I can get her wet but hope this was the last major hurdle .
Guess I should at least check the ESA on the muffs when I get to where I can and then head out to the water.
Oddly after days and days of rain we have been having weather in the high 60s to low 70s . Rain is expected again in a couple of days but expect to go back to the good weather after that. Maybe I'll get several more good days to work on the boat and get it done sooner rather than later. Time will tell.

Thanks Lou , seems like you always point me in the right direction and I appreciate it ------

 

[Lou C]

You're welcome!
to test the ESA on land, hook up an accurate tach to the coil. Then get it idling at about 600 rpm. Now trigger the little lever arm on one of the microswitches, and you should see the rpm drop significantly to about 450 rpm. The engine should be in good enough tune to keep running at that speed. What happens when shifting on the water is this:
You go to shift out of in-gear to N, the clutch dogs want to stay engaged, this puts pressure on the shift cable jacket. This moves the load lever (spring loaded large lever on shift plate) and that trips the lever arm on the interrupt switch. This will then lower the RPM to 450 and that reduces engine torque enough to allow the clutch dogs to release and the drive will go into neutral. Good luck hope it all works as it should.

 

[Lou C]

Also:
ESA works only when you are shifting OUT of gear, to neutral, not into gear.
OMC's ESA is more advanced than Merc's shift interrupt. Because on the OMC, the engine will not stall when shifting, if the shift takes too long, on the Merc, any stiffness in the cable will cause the engine to stall, on the OMC, the ESA module lowers your idle to 450, it does not short it out....so much for OMC being 'inferior' to Mercruiser…..