fund razor

Ok, it's my new "last problem before I launch."

OMC Cobras. Electronic Shift Assist. Micro switch is thrown on the engine bracket which (I believe) changes the dwell, drops the rpms, and lets the drive drop into gear smoothly. Anyway, it's an ignition manipulation basically.

The dork who owned my boat previously tie wrapped the overstroke plunger switch open and interrupted the lead from the module to the ignition (I think)
anyway, he put manual switches at the helm. I will change this back to stock at some point... however, for now I want to get the port side working.

The SB side works. push the switch, rpms drop, boat goes in gear silently. Push the stick forward, prop spins. Fine.

No port. I spent a couple hours and verified the switch and the wire going from/to the module. I replaced the dorks connectors and checked the original boot style connector, too. I'm guessing it's the Port side module, but I haven't gone to the length of swapping them between sides.
(partially because the SB side works, and I don't want to take a step backwards.)

I know that i shouldn't launch the boat without this shift assist working, because the gears in the drive will rub/shear.
Anybody have a history with these modules? Anything else I should be looking at?

In the meantime I'll see if my OMC guy has the part. If it isn't too expensive (I have no idea) I'll probably pick one up just to troubleshoot with.
Maybe these fail occasionally?

Thanks for any input, Cobra guys.

mopower

Yes , the modules do fail occasionally. Trust me...I know . The purpose is to assist shifting to neutral by "unloading" the the shift dog. The gears stay meshed at all times. The module will knockout every other cylinder and drop the rpms. I screwed one up by pulling my coil wire and turning over the engine. The spark jumped from the secondary of the coil to the little terminal that the module was connected to and ZAP POOF gone
Now , to make this more confusing , there was an upgraded module that only uses one micro switch and the other was left unplugged or removed.
I had one from '93 to '00 and have forgotten some of the fine points , but over all I liked the drive. Put 625 hp through it for a while , till I sold the boat. Then replaced the stock engine. I see the current owner frequently and it's still running


P.S. mid 90's the module ran about $100. if I remember correctly

Liberator21

In the new module, they changed the rpm level and how it's done so the engine doesn't run so rough (if I remember correctly). They also added a timer to it, so it only drops the idle for a certain amount of time. Don't use the drive without it. It will cost a lot more to fix the drive than the cost of the module.

fund razor

Thanks for the responses.
I really appreciate it.

I had a strong feeling it was the module, so I ran and got the part yesterday and put it in last night. I had already verified everything else.

Long story short, the replacement part worked. I think it might have been one of you guys that warned me about this issue in a past post. So when one side wasn't dropping the revs I didn't try to shift it at all.

I think that I had the new version of the module already, because one micro switch on each bracket (both sides) is tie-wrapped closed.

I will probably pick up an extra module because it would be easy to change on the fly if I had a problem while I was out.

Thanks again.

fund razor

By the way...you guys rule.

mopower

VERY good idea.

mrv8outboard

RAPAIR , CDI Electronics makes a replacement aftermarket part. it might be the one for points type ignition not electronic, they were thinking of making one for the electronic ignition as well. check em out. fyi.