Omc outdrive knocking noise while cruising.

[dac018]

This is my new and old ESA. I used a multimeter and didnt get anything from my micro switches so im just going to replace the entire thing. After talking with CDI they sent me an ESA that does work with a HEI distributor! Im excited to get her working correctly.
My question, does anyone know why the previous owner would have cut and wire nutted 2 wires on the micro switches? (see pics). Im not planning on doing that to the new switches unless I need to.
Thanks guys!

 

[Lou C]

Were they trying to wire it like a Mercruiser so as to avoid buying a new ESA?

 

[dac018]

Yea I have no Idea, im tryna find out why online but haven't seen anything yet. Like I said I am putting the new stuff in like CDI reccomends and hope it all works great should know in a few hours. I ordered a new lower unit from SEI it came in last week. $1278 out the door. It would have cost $1600 from TCelectronics. They were super helpful and informative on the phone but I wanted a complete new outdrive and it was $3200 for the upper and lower, 16 each. Its hard to justify that on a 40 year old boat. The SEI has a 3 year warranty as well.
I just want to make sure everything is working correctly before I put the new lower unit on the outdrive. I dont want to grenade it prematurely, haha! Especially after spending that money.

 

[dac018]

Yea I have no Idea, im tryna find out why online but haven't seen anything yet. Like I said I am putting the new stuff in like CDI reccomends and hope it all works great should know in a few hours. I ordered a new lower unit from SEI it came in last week. $1278 out the door. It would have cost $1600 from TCelectronics. They were super helpful and informative on the phone but I wanted a complete new outdrive and it was $3200 for the upper and lower, 16 each. Its hard to justify that on a 40 year old boat. The SEI has a 3 year warranty as well.
I just want to make sure everything is working correctly before I put the new lower unit on the outdrive. I dont want to grenade it prematurely, haha! Especially after spending that money.

Its working, not when I actually shift though, something is off with the shift bracket but it is stalling when I manually press it so we're moving in the right direction!

 

[Lou C]

There are adjustable cams on the shift bracket that have to contact the interruption switch, if they aren’t adjusted right when you shift from in gear to neutral the interrupt switch won’t get triggered. If the engine is in good tune it shouldn’t stall when the interrupt switch is triggered. Mine will drop from 600 rpm to 450 when it’s triggered.
With the Cobra the most important thing is a good shift cable with minimal drag (less than 2.5 lbs), properly adjusted cable & linkage so you have equal stroke on each side of neutral and a working ESA. I have had the same outdrive on mine with minimal repairs for 23 years. The latest repair was the seal for the water pump adapter. This is a common point for water to get into the gear case in these. That place up in Ontario Canada (TC Electronics) sells a modified seal installed in the adapter that seals better than the original. It corrects the short seal life that can result from wear on the water pump shaft.
Let us know how the SEI lower works out. I have a spare lower unit that I’m going to have TC rebuild for me. The upper gear housings on these rarely go bad, as long as you keep them properly filled with gear oil.

 

[Lou C]

Salt water used 23 years. This is how it looks with the water pump adapter plate removed. You can see the shaft bearing right there! Special trick needed to get that plate off…

 

[Lou C]

Cobra in FWD

Cobra in REV
in the REV pic you can see the cam pushing against the trigger for the interrupt switch