50 Cobra noise in neutral

"I just purchased a 93 190 Hor

"I just purchased a 93 190 Horizon with a 5.0 and cobra outdrive. The first trip out after shifting into gear and then into neutral I noticed a whining or rubbing sound in neutral. It shifts good and runs great but am concerned about this noise when shifting back into neutral. When you turn off the motor and restart the noise is not present until you put back into gear and then into neutral.
I have a call into the marina where I boutht the boat, but would like an idea as to what may be the cause before they get back to me."

"I'd be willing to bet you

"I'd be willing to bet you need a new shifter cable. It's the cable, sometimes red, that runs from a plate affair behind or beside the air cleaner, into a rubber hose, with a rubber bellows zip-tied to the end, down into the bowels, and dissappearing into the very bottom of the inner transom shield (big metal plate attached to the inside of the transom, right behind the motor) They are notorious on cobras for failure, as they also are on Mercruisers. This cable is exposed to water, and has a definite lifespan. When they begin to sieze, the shifter mechanism inside the gearcase has trouble returning to neutral, and your clutch dog is dragging a bit. It's like grinding gears on a standard transimssion. Grinding is never a good sound. I wouldn't drive it until you get it checked out, as it will eventually lead to the dog wearing out, and costly gearcase work. If it's hard to shift into and out of gear, either fwd or rev, I would almost certainly say this was the issue. Post as to how it ends up!"

Thanks for the info. It shift

Thanks for the info. It shift very easily into both forward and reverse. I am waiting on the dealer to get back to me to get it in to look at the problem. I will let you know how it turns out.

"If you pull it back into reve

"If you pull it back into reverse *slowly* and the noise then goes away, then the cable needs to be adjusted. It's a little too far towards foreward. Sloppy work by the marina, they probably adjusted it out of the water, with flush adapters instead of in the water, and checking their adjustment under load. You have to have some resistance to the work being done for the adjustment to be done correctly. It's spring, everyone's busy and rushy...they may simply have been trying to please too many people at once. Spring is the worst time to be in the industry. Nothing goes as planned."

"Turns out that it had nothing

"Turns out that it had nothing to do with the outdrive. The ignition switch was bad causing the starter motor to kick in when shifting out of gear. I guess the ignition kills the engine for a nano second in order to ease shifting, and the switch was causing the starter to think it needed to restart the motor. Replaced the ignition switch and all is well."

"I have a 93 Sunbird Corsair 1

"I have a 93 Sunbird Corsair 198 with a inboard 5.0 HO OMC. Everything worked fine until yesterday. After a couple hard starts noticed the Tach was not working but engine was running fine. When I attempted to pull the throttle back to neutral, the throttle seemed to bind and would not go into neutral. I forced it into neutral (with not much force) and the engine died and now will not start. The engine cranks over fine but seems to have no spark. The coil, ignition switch, and magnetic pick up assembley tested fine but still no spark. I checked all the connections that I could think of but all seemed fine. Are there any safety switches or fuses or anything that would prevent it from having spark? I'm a car guy but do not know much about boats or how they are set up. I looked over the ignition and throttle system and it all looks pretty straight forward, but I don't know if there are any hidden switches or whatever somewhere on the boat. Can anyone help me out. Thanks"