OMC Headaches

[shu9265]

Where do I start ?

Alan, (fenceman2ac) and I have been doing a bit of fishing together for the past couple months. Any how, last time we were out, the outdrive on Alan's boat crapped out and left us stranded on Lake Ontario. We were then towed in by the Coast Guard.

Anyways, we were able to determine that the ball gears were the suspected culprit. (Thanks to Jim, (1maniac) for his knowledge and willingness to put up with all my phone calls lol. He had a set of gears that Alan bought from him.

I went do to Alan's yesterday and removed the old ones and we installed the new gears. When we tested the performance, the prop failed to rotate.

We decided to pull the lower half off the out drive, when I tried to rotate the gears, I could get rotation out of the gears on top of the water impeller but nothing below it was turning.

When we pulled the assembly apart, we found the spline on top of the shaft

(see attached photo) was stripped.

Know we are in the process of trying to locate another shaft to be able to get Alan's boat back on the water.

I have alway's been a Merc Cruiser guy, but, I am learning OMC's inside and out.

[pbrktrt]

I believe they were an answer to a problem that didn't exist. Competition between OEM's will go on but OMC got it wrong. Very expensive to repair, uber critical on adjustments, and just not the equal to the Mercruiser. That being said, I feel for your buddy as I have one in the same place on his FourWinns. His other fishing friends helped him service the lower unit and did not put enough oil in. The OMC has a dipstick on top which they were unaware of and filled as they did on their Merc's. The resulting damage took a matter of moments. There are aftermarket parts still available if you look but be prepared to pay a premium for them. Good luck and I hope you guys get her going soon.

[1mainiac]

Not wanting to disagree with Pat too much but the OMC drive was designed by a mercury engineer. Mercury said no one would ever want a stern drive and thru the idea away. The design got passed around and OMC was formed there are still tons of them doing a good job every day however they made no attempts to update a 1950's design untill it was too late and then they made a few attempts to modernize leading up to the Cobra design but had lost market share and could not buy back customer loyalty. Volvo Penta ended up with most of their final designs. Personally my Cobra drive is as good if not better than any of the Mercury designs but thankfully I can pull it all and put in a Mercury or Volvo if I want. They are expensive now because they are out of business and out of production so there are not many good deals to be found Stern drive info has most if not all parts but again no competition so not much need to offer deals. I just sold my last upper unit for much less than the shaft will cost or I would be shipping more parts on Mon. http://www.outboardjunkyard.com/ these guys might have the parts you need as well and they are fair to deal with.

[shu9265]

I found a "new" replacement shaft for $89.00 and another $50 for the impeller kit.

So all in all, not to terrible.

[Priority1]

I hope all goes well with the repairs.

[pbrktrt]

Jim, I guess I did seem a bit critical in my reply and I apologize. You may have answered a question that I've been trying to find out with no luck. It is possible to replace the Cobra with a Merc? Would it be just a matter of changing lower unit and controls? I'm sure there would be some minor changes on the engine required also. If you or someone you know has done this let me know. As you know, Mercruiser lowers are a lot easier and cheaper to find than the Cobra. One innocent mistake from good meaning friends and my buddy has a $2000.00 pile of scrap.

[Hoosier_Steelheader]

I had an OMC 800 on my SeaStar, and it was a workhorse. Even when I hit a sunken pier post and threw out my reverse in St Joe, we were able to fish all day (didn't know reverese was gone until we tried to get back into the slip) But parts and repairs weren't cheap for it .

I still have a couple of website links that offer OEM, and rebuilt OMC stuff if anyone needs them send me an email or PM.

JC

[1mainiac]

Jim, I guess I did seem a bit critical in my reply and I apologize. You may have answered a question that I've been trying to find out with no luck. It is possible to replace the Cobra with a Merc? Would it be just a matter of changing lower unit and controls? I'm sure there would be some minor changes on the engine required also. If you or someone you know has done this let me know. As you know, Mercruiser lowers are a lot easier and cheaper to find than the Cobra. One innocent mistake from good meaning friends and my buddy has a $2000.00 pile of scrap.

The parts won't interchange however you can use the motor and some peices the big thing is the transom cutout is nearly identical all you have to do is relocate a couple of bolt holes and a Mercruiser system will bolt in if it were not for the fact the Cobra is a great drive and I know I can install a Mercruiser if it goes bad I would not own this boat. OMC built a great drive however it was completely differant than everything else including how you had to build the boat for it. Pretty much all I/O's now use similar Transom cutouts so you can change them out completely without rebuilding the boat to make it work. However you could have one of the Yamaha I/O's if you think OMC is expensive price out parts for a Yamaha I/O.