1988 OMC Cobra Outdrive issues Bam Bam

Im trying to find out how serious this is.Im guessing the outdrive or throw out bearing is bad.Here what it doing.We head out,goes in gear fine.We will be cruising along and BAM,sounds like we hit something,but we didnt,then it may happen again in a few minutes.Yesterday it when into neutral.I though we were done as in tow it,but,I shifted into neutral,then forward and made it back to the dock.Im wondering if maybe I can fix this myself,or take in as in serious money. Any Suggestions are Appreciated.

The prop hub might have spun. Run a line thru the center and see if it match's up after it happens again. Fix, new prop.

The coupler is going. Look behind the engine smell rubber, see rubber. Fix new coupler, engine got to come out.

Cobras are know to have a bad dog if the lower cable was not adjusted correctly. Fix new lower cable.

Pray for a spun hub.

http://www.hastings.org/~stuart/cobra/
that "hit a log" feeling is usually clutch dogs disengaging. 3 or 4 good clunks under load and the dog and lower unit gears will usually need replacing.

You need to find a shop you trust to do the work. They can put $1000 worth of parts in the lower unit and if the cable isn't set up properly, it can all start clunking again.
It's not rocket surgery, but requires some understanding and patience. After paying $1500 to get my Cobra drive repaired years ago, my boat still didn't shift right, so like a lot of folks, I learned all about the shift system myself and made all the adjustments myself.

A fresh option is to replace your Cobra drive with a Mercruiser Alpha One style drive from SEI
the whole kit is about $2500 with new outdrive

I have done a few of these conversions.

Don't waste your time or money trying to repair your obsolete omc drive.