MM, thank you for the information. I must admit that I come into this from the Volvo Penta side, not the OMC side.
Quite frankly, I have always steered clear of the OMC's.
Your first two hyperlinks did not work for me!
However, I won't argue with you over the 1986/1987 Cobra introduction date.
Several boat manufacturers may have allowed production earlier than others. I know that B/L was not one of them, because unfortunately, they had used the Stringer Drive earlier. They were also using the Volvo Penta during and through 1986. By 1987 they began using the Cobra.
And as for the actual Volvo Penta SX and/or DP-S "cone clutch" drives......., if the OMC purchase did not occur until late 1993, I believe that explains the 1994 comment.
Perhaps I'm wrong, but this info below appears to be from GLM.... not Volvo Penta, nor OMC, nor Bombardier.
It may be possible that the dates are off a tad bit....... I don't know!
While most people will admit that the OMC stringers were
poorly engineered, the OMC Cobra had some pretty innovative features. The new
modern factory and the Cobra engineering attracted the attention of Volvo and in
1993 OMC and Volvo entered into a joint venture and began producing a hybrid
sterndrive with the OMC Cobra transom plate assembly and the excellent Volvo
cone clutch outdrive. Sold as the Cobra by OMC and the SX Drive by Volvo, this
drive had the best of both manufacturers. Because the new hybrid sterndrive used
the same transom plate as the Cobra, Volvo now had a drive that would bolt into
the same size transom cutout hole as the Mercruiser.
The new Cobra/Volvo hybrid sterndrive shared only the transom
assembly with the 1986-1992 OMC Cobra. Everything behind the transom plate bell
housing was Volvo engineering. Realistically, with the introduction of this
sterndrive in 1993, we can say that the OMC sterndrive engineers were put out of
business when the last of the OMC designed sterndrives finished production in
1992. On December 23rd 1998, Volvo purchased the Lexington, Tennessee factory
and all of the production rights to the OMC sterndrives, thus officially ending
the OMC sterndrive business.
This must have been rather difficult for the OMC Corporation, and perhaps some of the information re; the alleged "joint venture" was kept very private. I suppose a portion of this varies depending on which side you come in from...... OMC or Volvo Penta, and perhaps the source.
What one may call a chaper 11 "life jacket" or "take-over", another may call a "joint venture"!
One can certainly understand that the OMC name would best serve previous OMC owners, and "would-be" used OMC boat owners, if it were to continue being shown for a while.
None-the-less, full bankruptcy was apparently filed December 22, 2000 if my source is accurate.
BTW, I believe that the only Cone Clutch that OMC was given the pattent rights to use....., was for the very short lived King Cobra Cone Clutch drive.
The standard OMC Cobras were all "dog clutch".
MM, I'll take your word that neither of the Cobras had a trim limit switch.
Fair nuff? 
pl8284 (the OP here) needs to change out his bearing crosses regardless of our conversation re; the trim switch! 
