1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

[f-5]

Hello all, this is my first post on here. I have a 1967 Grew fiberglass with 307 Buick and Stringer i/o. My problem started with the outboard slipping into neutral while cruising. It would happen from time to time so I would run the boat at slower speeds and it would not happen. When this did happen I would shift into neutral and the back into forward and go for another while. Eventually it slipped out of gear and now will not engage into forward at all. I am new to OMC outdrives and would like your opinions. It has electronic shift. Any help appreciated. The reverse works fine.

 

[Fishermark]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

I'm no OMC expert, and mainly want to respond just to bump this back to the top - hate to see a new poster have no response!

Am I not correct in my understanding that the "default" position for the old electric shifts is in forward gear? In other words, you have to supply an electric current to the solenoids to have either neutral or reverse? That way, if you lose your electrical connection, you at least still have forward gear?

 

[f-5]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

Thanks for the response. I really have no experience with these drives and could use some direction. I guess I should buy a manual. The boat is very old but in excellent condition and I would like to keep everything original. I was hoping this to be a minor problem. I'll just be patient for responses for now.

 

[wire knot]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

wow 1967 stringer.
and THEY say they are unreliable.

The elect. stringer uses 12v to fire coils in the LU.
No power NO gear.

Im gonna guess your shifter switch is losing contact.
There is a knife connector at the transom, you could apply 12 v
to the wires going to the OD to try to eliminate the Binicle sw.

You could search e bay for a manual.
If your gonna work on her u gotta get one.
Try to get the OMC manual for your HP/year.

WK

 

[Bondo]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

Ayuh,...

The gears, well, actually the dog-clutches, are undercut to hold'em into gear....
I'm guessing that your's are just plain Worn Out....
And,...
Unfortunately,... There are No parts available to replace yours...

 

[chiefalen]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

First welcome aboard.

Parts on e-bay all the time.

Theres a guy on e-bay that might have your manual.

If it is the clutch dog, i've known guys to turn them around so forward don't keep slipping.

How fast and how often to you really go in reverse?

If that is the problem and you can't get one that might be a option.

Who knows you might get another 40 years out of that dog.

You gonna have to yank that dog, who knows the last time anyone ever took the lower apart.

Might not be the dog, might be the connection at the electric motor in the drive.

One last thing, you could get a counter turning prop, if you can find one, and run the reverse as forward.

I think i just saw some on e-bay right now.

Good luck.

 

[Fishermark]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

The elect. stringer uses 12v to fire coils in the LU.
No power NO gear.

Back to my original response - I am pretty sure that the "default" is forward. In other words, the two solenoids are for neutral and reverse. If you have no power to either solenoid, then you have forward gear.

As Bondo writes...

The gears, well, actually the dog-clutches, are undercut to hold'em into gear....
I'm guessing that your's are just plain Worn Out....

It is very possible your clutches are worn out. It is also possible that you are getting a stray current to the neutral solenoid.

A simple test to see if I am correct about the forward position would be to disconnect the cable to the outdrive and see if you have forward gear.

But I emphasize again.... I AM NOT AN OMC EXPERT.

 

[Fishermark]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

A quick story - about 15 years ago my brother had a boat with a Ford 351 and an OMC electric shift outdrive. I rebuilt the engine for him and we took it out for a test run. Coming back into the inlet we suddenly lost forward gear. Our prop had sheared the shear pin. We fix the prop and found we only had reverse gear. (I had to motor two miles back to the boat ramp in reverse! )

We took the boat to a local marina which specialized in OMC drives. It turns out that there were two problems:

1. We had accidentally cut the electric shift cable at the back because we had not routed it correctly. After the cable was cut, power was lost to the solenoids.

2. Normally it would not have caused a problem since it would have defaulted to forward gear. But, according to the shop, someone had put the lower unit together incorrectly and had swapped the springs that control forward and reverse. (Keep in mind I know very little about these old electric shifts - I am simply sharing what the shop told us). When we lost power to the solenoids, it defaulted into REVERSE instead of forward as it was supposed to. Needless to say, since we were near WOT, that instantly sheared the pin and left us stranded for awhile. After he fixed it, it was not a problem again.

It was quite a sight seeing us try to steer this big boat all the way up the intracoastal waterway in Ft Lauderdale trying, unsuccessfully, to keep it straight. At least it was 3 am so there wasn't much boat traffic to worry about.

 

[wire knot]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

Back to my original response - I am pretty sure that the "default" is forward. In other words, the two solenoids are for neutral and reverse. If you have no power to either solenoid, then you have forward gear.

Sorry Fishmark,
Thats wrong
No power......... No forward or reverse.

 

[chiefalen]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

No shear pin no forward no reverse.

Sounded crazy huh getting a prop that turns ccw.

Saw here a while back a guy who has been driving his boat for years that way.

But we really don't know whats wrong yet.

Another option is to junk the electric shift and go full mechanical.

And the cheapest way to do that is get a boat with a good out drive, if your motor is still good, but the motor is shot in the donor boat, and transfer the intermediate back.

Those boats with stringers and no motor are all over.

Guy near me sells the whole out drive for 400 bucks. 85'.

And all you have to do is enlarge the transom hole.

 

[captk]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

1967 OMC drives were all electric shift. No solenoids, no clutch dogs. Coils (magnets) inside the gearcase, inside the clutch hubs are activated by 12v from the control. A spring attached to the gear clamps down on the hub and starts the prop turning. One fwd and one rev. If you lose voltage, no drive, Wrong gear lube, no drive, worn out clutch hub, no drive, Broken drive spring, no drive. Check for voltage first. But do get a manual. Also no default to fwd on these cases, that was on the Hydro-elec outboards early 70s. good luck. Bill

 

[Fishermark]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

Well, like I said, I am certainly no OMC expert. At least the original poster now has some good information to go on.

So they had different types of electric shift models huh? Yep, my brother's boat was a 1973 model and must have had the Hydro electric because it had two solenoids - one for neutral and one for reverse. This wasn't the outboard model - it was an I/O.

 

[captk]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

All OMC stern drives from Early 60s until 1977 were electric shift. The shift switch was in the control, went directly to the drive, with knife disconnects at the int. housing. The solenoids,with blue and green wires also, were the power trim solenoids.

 

[chiefalen]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

I saw them coils for stringers on e-bay today.

 

[Fishermark]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

All OMC stern drives from Early 60s until 1977 were electric shift. The shift switch was in the control, went directly to the drive, with knife disconnects at the int. housing. The solenoids,with blue and green wires also, were the power trim solenoids.

Out of shear curiosity, I decided to go and dig up the actual information on the boat that I worked on - which is currently sitting in my side yard on blocks. Turns out my memory is bad - it is not a 1973 model, it is a 23' 1977 Seawind. The trip I mentioned in the account above involved the electric shift cable being cut in two at the back of the transom - where it exits the transom and enters the lower unit. There was no voltage to the outdrive at all, but after we replaced the shear pin we had reverse gear all the time. Which the OMC mechanic said was due to someone putting it together wrong or backwards. The forward and reverse springs had gotten switch around ... or something like that.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

Undoubtedly, the forward slinky is broken!

 

[chiefalen]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

Been reading up on this wonderful piece of engineering genius.

Bet everyone didn't know i was talking about the electric shift omc out drive 64-77.

What LSD tripping guy dreamed this one up.

It was like he was a sadist, must have stayed up late at night thinking about how future owners of these POS'ts gonna fix them.

Put magnets in the lower to draw the metal fillings out of the oil.

They required you to bake loctite on set screws that hold the gear.

The whole gear and all had to be put in a oven at 300 for 1/2 hour. Page 10-28 of the seloc manual.

There is no dog, but a clutch.

I'm praying this guy who owns this boat has a cut wire and thats it.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: 1967 OMC Stringer no forward drive

Best and easiest thing to try is to apply 12V with a test wire directly to the wires(one at a time) going to the drive. One wire is for forward, the other one is for reverse. The ground will, of course, go through the case of the drive. Once you determine if it works or doesn't work at that point, it will tell you what direction you need to head in.