23 CobraNo Reverse any more

"I just bought this boat, and

"I just bought this boat, and took it on a spin with a mechanic from the dealer. Everything ran fine, F/N/R...and shifted easy. Took it out again for a very short ride when i got it, again F/N/R worked fine. Took her out today on her true maiden voyage... (Not really its an '89), and when in the dock...no reverse!! Got out from the dock, drove it for awhile, tried reverse, and it worked fine and shifted easy. Headed into the beach, put it in reverse, shifted really hard, but worked. Got back in and tried to take it out in reverse, now again no reverse.

The dealer is closed untill after the 4th, and i was really hoping to take it out. Is there something easy i can check to see if it came out of "wack" ?

I am pretty handy, but have no knowlege at all about I/O engines... So if you have any advice..please be gental with the acronyms.

Thanks!"

"I am no expert, but becoming

"I am no expert, but becoming one quickly. We had the similar problem and it ended up being the shift cable. Not an easy task and not impossible either, can be fixed but you have to put in some time and effort....Good luck.........."

How can you tell if it is the

How can you tell if it is the cable before changing it out?

"Very difficult shifting, shou

"Very difficult shifting, should be as easy as using one finger, lightly. We just bought our boat also, 1987 with omc cobra. We had overheating problems, ended up going through a lot, and when we put the lower and upper unit back together we lost reverse. After careful and time consuming searching, we observed slight freying in the shift cable by the transom...... It was difficult to shift, but not that difficult so without having pryor knowledge we did't realize it was the shift cable. NOW we know better........."

"I too am rapidly becoming an

"I too am rapidly becoming an expert.

What I would do is detach the shifter cable by the engine. You have 3 cables...hopefully red...black is the old generation. 1. the cable from your controls, 2. throttle cable , and 3. the cable that goes through the transom to the lower unit(shifter cable?). On the engine you have a shift lever. The <u>top</u> cable (control?)moves the shift lever on the engine. The <u>bottom</u> cable is the shifter cable to the lower unit of the outdrive. The throttle cable obviously goes to the carberator. You can simply pull 2 cotter pins and one washer...be careful not to drop these little things into your bilge. Have someone turn the prop while you use the cable to shift in and out of forward and reverse by sliding the plastic cable end in and out. Check to see how diffficult it shifts. You can adjust the position of the cale by spinning the little black plastic cylinder on the cable forward or backward. Google up Stuart Hastings and OMC to get his web site on how to properly adjust an OMC Cobra. There is a lot there. concentrate on the shift cable adjustment info and the 5 step cable adjustment procedure."

Thanks all!! It was a bad cabl

Thanks all!! It was a bad cable. It was peeled back about 2inches in the lower unit.

Replaced it and it runs greate!!!

Thanks again.

"Hi Guy's
I purchased a 1

"Hi Guy's
I purchased a 1989 RenKen with 5.7 OMC King Cobra
Re outfitted the hole boat over the winter. Put her in the water a couple of weeks ago and did a test run. She ran good but i had to clean the shift control and lower the ide. They also disconected the shift switch i am replaceing for a smoother shift. I also adjusted the cables. She is shifting much smoother. This week i had to replace a port side valve cover gasket, so i decided to check the adjustment on the valves.
I was running the engine in the water with the out drive up about 3/4 of the way. Not what i should have done just forgot to put her down.
all of a sudden i started hearing this loud winding noise from the rear of the engine and the engine was heating up to much. so i shut her down and put her in forward gear and reverse and i can turn the prop both ways in gear. I think the engine coupler must of went bad from the outdrive being up and stresing it.
Does anyone have any insite on this before i pull the out drive and the engine. My last stern drive was a merc cruiser 15 years ago.
Thank You RC"