King Cobra Shifting problems solved..

[Greg K]

Those who know my 22, have seen the issues I have had with shifting out of gear with my King Cobra, since I had no way of interrupting the motor to shift easily out of gear. And last week after suffering some severe rope burns I decided I needed to do something about it.
My solution was installing a MSD ignition box along with their Shift Assist Module. My shift bracket had a switch on it, but did not operate anything since the Spitfire ignition was removed and replaced with an HEI distributor. The shift switch now triggers the MSD shift assist and interrupts the motor now. The module was removed from the HEI distributor and replaced with a MSD bypass cable, basically converting the distributor to a magnetic pickup type.
If anyone would like more info, e-mail me.

[RedDog]

After adjusting my shift cable prior to last weekend's run, I think I had the opposite problem - the interupter was engaging even in neutral - hard to start. Or a least I hope that was the problem. Tomorrow's outing will tell. Anyway, I've been told the KC drive with cone clutches don't need the interupter in order to shift. Is yours pre-cone clutch (i.e., no hum on top of drive)?

[Greg K]

My KC is the cone clutch type and yes most say you don't need it if you have the idle set low enough, but I have been still fine tuning my carb and getting the idle set to where I'm happy with it and also with the mixture adjustment screws.
I think the torque of the new motor also has increased the load on the clutch too. It's a 10 year old drive hanging off the back and felt I should do something to make it easier on it and shifting gears. From what I can tell it's going to be very smooth shifting from now on and alot better maneuvering around other boats and the docks.
You can see in the following pics where I located the box on the transom. MSD provides all the wiring you need and then some to make the installation easy. I had to only add one wire to ground my distributor coil. Wire harnesses are long enough to where I had to coil some of them up and tie up.
http://www.donzi.net/photos/gregkmsd1.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/gregkmsd2.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/gregkmsd3.jpg

[joey donzi]

too funny