King Cobra shifting

[miike59]

I repowered to a 540hp big block. When I run full throttle around 5000 rpm, the shifter is hard to pull back to neutral. Then it has a delayed shift into forward and an immediate shift into reversed, as if the cable is longer. I have had two mechanics inspect the boat. The second was an OMC specialist who reset the shift back to factory settings and said he couldnt find anything wrong with it after running it on the hose. The problem still exists now. I have an entire spare drive in my garage. Does anyone know if this drive just doesn't like the power or if there is some other adjustment I can make? Otherwise I will be switching to a bravo this winter.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[HT32BSX115]

Howdy,

Welcome aboard!

I think you mentioned in another thread that it's a 1992 model Cone-Clutch model?

That drive is essentially a dinosaur that is compatible with nothing (but you probably know that)

OMC didn't use a stand alone ESA with the cone clutch drives but I believe they did use some sort of ECM controlled shift interrupt. (Mercury doesn't use any sort of shift interrupt at all with the Cone-clutch Bravo)

If you modified the engine, switched to a carb, and removed the electronic ignition, did you eliminate the shift interrupt altogether?

Also, if it's hard to shift from FWD or REV to neutral, that points to either the lower shift cable, shift linkage, or (if the drive is getting really HOT running it "hard") the cone clutches are binding internally.

Either way, I wouldn't run ANY cone-clutch Cobra hard because they're so rare. Break it and you may not be able to find certain replacement parts (except used)

As far as switching? I already did that and would do it again. It was pretty easy..... If I had yours, I would part the entire mess out on Craigslist, eBAY, Boat Trader etc.....

Regards,


Rick

 

[miike59]

It's a new engine, a Merc HP500. I am running a DUI custom distributor and I did add the shift interrupt and while shifting slowly, I can verify on the tach that it is working. I asked DUI if I could run the interrupter switch and they said it was fine with theirs and any HEI dist. I will prob be switching to a Bravo XR with a -2 shorty lower this winter, with external steering and a drive shower. I'm running close to 80 in a 22 Classic Donzi. Everyone praises the strength of the King Cobras so I thought I'd run it and see how it went. Plus I like having something a little unique. All the other guys run Bravo based drives.
Thanks for the help!

Mike

 

[HT32BSX115]

IEveryone praises the strength of the King Cobras so I thought I'd run it and see how it went. Plus I like having something a little unique. All the other guys run Bravo based drives.
Thanks for the help!

Mike

Yeah. There's probably no doubt about the "strength" of most of the Cobras from the early "Dogs" to the Interim cone clutches. The (Volvo/OMC) SX's are quite strong. They do break however. The biggest problem, is of course the fact that OMC has been gone for more than 15 years.

They didn't make/sell a huge amount of the interim cone-clutch drives before Volvo finalized the SX (which replaced it) That makes certain parts for them rather rare (or non-existent) I really don't think you'd have much of a problem selling the drives and other components. I had good luck with eBAY selling all the OMC stuff I had.

I sold it all piece by piece and it took a couple of years but I wasn't in any hurry. (I got $1450 for the [87 model 460 dog-clutch] drive and I shipped it all the way to the east coast) The buyer even paid for the shipping.

Regards,


Rick