Shift Cable

[samm835]

Well I took the boat out for the first time this year(OMC 3.0) OMC Cobra Drive. When trying to engage the unit into forward or into reverse it seemed fine, but then trying to go back into neutral seemed hard to find it. Could this be a cable issue(loosen or tighten, replace) or anything else? Its a 1994 any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[samm835]

Re: Shift Cable

Hello(echo), I know there has got to be an answer here? Hmmmmm who did I make mad to not get any answers back?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Shift Cable

More than likely it is your lower shift cable. Don't run your boat until you get this fixed as you will ruin the dog gears in the lower unit if they aren't fullly engaged.

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: Shift Cable

Need to verify if it's a 1994 for sure. I believe the 94's were cone clutch but the 93's were still dog clutch. Just because the boat is a 94 doesn't guarantee the drive is as well. Whats the model # off the engine?

 

[samm835]

Re: Shift Cable

The boat is a 94, but I am not around the boat to get the # off the motor so I guess to be continued......either way is this something that can be fixed by the average Joe or should I take it to the mechanic and have them charge me out the WY-ZOOOOO ? I am decent with the tools so I won't be afraid, but I don't want to get over my head either. You said something about changing the lower drive shift cable.....sounds easy but I am sure there is more to it.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Shift Cable

Bob is correct, 94 is when the OMC/Volvo joint venture started. If your water pump is on the rear of the sterndrive, you have the older dog clutch model, if the raw water pump is mounts on the engine, you have the newer cone clutch model.

If you have the newer cone clutch model(Pray that you do), the cable goes all the way to the helm control.

 

[samm835]

Re: Shift Cable

Just for the sake of conversation so I can have some sort of info going into this. Lets "pretend" I have both, what could I expect from either of these? Also the easiness(is this a word?) on fixing the problem. Thanks, I hope I am not asking for to much.

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: Shift Cable

Let's pretend you have the dog clutch style and it is the lower shift cable. This webpage is very interesting reading and from it you can decide if it's something you may want to tackle yourself. Read the whole article including the extra links within it.

http://www.hastings.org/~stuart/cobra/

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Shift Cable

I have changed both styles. The dog clutch version is much more involved as the adjustment procedure is much more complicated and the price you pay for adjusting it wrong is a set of dog clutches.

The hardest part about changing the cable with the cone clutch is routing the cable from the helm to the drive.

 

[samm835]

Re: Shift Cable

BoatinBob, Thanks for the link. I am going through and printing out this link just incase it is lost. After reading it, it sounds as if it shouldn't be to hard, but I think I might print this info off and send my boat down to my mechanic and let them mess with it. At this point I don't feel like spending a bunch of time trying to get something right I don't know a lot about, so maybe depending on the cost it might be better for someone else to tackle. Maybe I will think different after finding out what year drive I have and a couple of beers, but more than likely it seems it shouldn't cost to much to have a mechanic adjust it. Thanks for the help and wish me luck for an easy solution.