OMC COBRA SHIFT PROBLEM FIXED- CHECK THIS OUT

[BEANSTALKER]

This may or may not be new information, but i thought i would share it with you. I have a 86 bonanza 4.3L OMC Cobra. I had some problems with my shifting the first time out on my boat along with water filling in the bilge area. I pulled the outdrive not because of the shifting but to replace the gimble bearing & bellows. I don't have all the parts yet to complete my water leak problem so i deceided to lube & check out some parts in the mean time. I started with the shift cable to check it out because of my hard shifting, it shifted hard even with the outdrive off. I did some reshearch on this site about the shift cable & found out there were lots of problems & it had me worried. I don't know a lot about boats or this drive even, but i'm a mechanis by trade. I pulled the cable out from the housing, it's a single piece of metal & it looked fine, a little dirty but fine. I read some posts about not using grease but to use wd-40 so i did & to my suprise the shifting was the same---hard. To bring this to a conclusion i found out that the bushings were pressing harder & harder against the shift lever the more i tightened the 7/16 nut. I took a file & revoved about .010 of a inch from the right bushing & i was able to tighten the nut firmly & the shifting was like butter. I don't believe the bushings were ever tampered with or replaced because they still have the original paint on them & they don't look like they were tampered with. My guess is heat caused the bushing to expand or it was sold like that. Hope this information helps someone. One more thing, from my description of my shift cable do i have the original one or the replacement one. If i was not descriptive enough, how do i tell wich shift cable i have??.

 

[BEANSTALKER]

Re: OMC COBRA SHIFT PROBLEM FIXED- CHECK THIS OUT

One more thing, do i use wd-40 on both the main cable & the intermeidiate cable??.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: OMC COBRA SHIFT PROBLEM FIXED- CHECK THIS OUT

I dont reccopmend any lubricant. its in a self lubricating nylon jacket. if its bad its just bad. usually it goes bad due to the support wires corroding and pressing on the inner nylon jacket. the bushing problem has been about for a long time. corrosion moves the bushing around. sometimes ya just have to remove some stock from the bellcrank lever. I have had to JB weld many of those bushings back in place here in the salt pond. will last a few years before failing again. most all the cobras are gone in my area. as are chyslers,white and red mercs and a varitey of other products. take the salt pond and a crabber and you will find problems inland techs cant even dream about.

 

[BEANSTALKER]

Re: OMC COBRA SHIFT PROBLEM FIXED- CHECK THIS OUT

The bushings are still secure & in good shape. Any idea what shift cable i have??. I have read that there was a recall on the original shift cable & they had a replacement one. Also was the recall for the main shift cable or the intermediaete cable?.

 

[lakelivin]

Re: OMC COBRA SHIFT PROBLEM FIXED- CHECK THIS OUT

The recall was for the transom shift cable. I believe the old ones were black (and I think they had a ribbed cable jacket), the new ones a are red and have a smooth cable jacket (note that I'm talking about the shift cable itself, not the hollow black plastic sheath that goes around the shift cable). <br /><br />Don't have my service manual handy, so if that's not right, hopefuly someone will correct me.

 

[rbezdon]

Re: OMC COBRA SHIFT PROBLEM FIXED- CHECK THIS OUT

Have you seen this?? I think you should download the pictures, it will help you, I did.<br /><br /> http://www.funkopolis.com:8080/~stuart/cobra/