Changing Drives?

[travisgoff]

How hard is it to change drives on a 89 donzi black widow? I just took my boat out today for the second time and had to limp back in on one engine for the second time. First time was the fuel pump, but this time I lost the ability to put a drive in gear and make the prop go round and round. I am hoping it is a hub on the prop, but I am prepared for the worse.

Should I need to repair/replace the drive, how hard would it be to change over to a diff drive, (I have the early version OMC KC now), and what would be done to the transom?

I think I got a omc kc on its way to me, (upper and lower), what do I need to do or watch for should I just swap out the drive, (how difficult is it, I am not as mechanical as most of you guys?)

Sorry so many questions, I have yet to be able to enjoy the boat for even half a day. Seems like lots of bad luck so far.

-Travis

[Johntrip]

I would'nt be so quick to change the drives..... One, from reading other posts the omc kc drive is proven reliable (better than the bravo). And Second, drive replacement would be expensive!!. I hope its your prop. Good Luck......

P.S. Do a search on here "omc drive" in thread titles...

[MOP]

It may be as simple as the shift cable to the drive, you need to do a little dio first to figure out what is wrong. Do your drives have the hump on top?

Phil

[travisgoff]

No hump, they are the earlier kc version. Not sure how the cable would be the culprit unless it came loose, because it was running just fine at about 45 knots for 20 min and then I caught a little air and within a minute I lost propulsion on the one side and heard a high rev grinding type noise and shut it down.

I got some time today, so I will go check it out.

-Travis

[BigGrizzly]

When the early KC goes it is pretty obvious, Noise and stuff. I would follow the MOP on this one. Back to your original question changing drives is not hard. Don't get too hasty, I hate to spend money needlessly. I am an engine guy and spend money on engines too easy but on other stuff I squeak, so far I haven't done too bad. Go slow on this, hast spends too much money needlessly

[MOP]

It sounds like you lunched the drive, at first I thought you had a shifting problem. A drive change though costly would be the best route, OMC parts are getting scarce especially for the tweener K Cobra parts which were marginally stronger then a standard Cobra. If you are going Bravo in the parts for sale section is a new pair of transom shields at a decent price, used shields and drives can be shopped for and van be fairly reasonable. The swap will help to up the value of the boat some if that helps with your thoughts.

Phil

[98shovel]

travis, ive got an early kc came off my 22c im going bravo also have a completly rebuilt transom assembly with fresh black imron.
was getting ready to paint drive an decided to change to merc will paint any color u would like the kc is in excellent shape with no known problems new water pump rebuilt rams all new trim hoses bushing seals ect. wuold like to sell as a package but will seperate dont know what their worth so would have to rely on some of the others to help with pricing
patrick

[travisgoff]

What am I looking for when I check the cable to see if its tight? When I move it forward or reverse, I get nothing indicating that its going into gear, the prop just sits there. The cable is moving like the other one though. (when looking at the brackets on the intakes) I can move that same throttle a little further on the reverse side and it trips a switch on the intake bracket that shuts the engine down, but the working side won't do that.

Is there a way to test and see if I can manually push/pull a cable and put it in gear?

What should I look to be tight, everything seems to still be attached to the intake bracket?

The way I look at it and think it works is that the top cable is attached to my throttle setup by my seat and this is mounted on the intake bracket, it moves a notched semi-round piece that moves a second cable attached to the bracket, which is probably going to the transmission somehow. Does this sound about right?

-Travis

[travisgoff]

Oh, btw...forgot to say I pulled the prop and hub...unfortunately, all is well there.

-Travis

[98shovel]

diconnect the cable that goes to the drive pull it all the way out then grab the prop and see if u can turn it then push it in all the way and try again
if the prop moves wene it not sopossed to pull the drive and check that the cable or lever is not broken

[mrfixxall]

pull the drain plug in the drive and see if the oil is silver,that should narrow it down for you..

Did you change the oil in the drive? If so when you drain the drive your soppose to fill the lower half of the drive first then the upper half of of the drive....I have seen a few come through my biz door where my customers do it them selfs and forget the upper and burn it upper half of the drive up..

good luck!

[MOP]

You have three oil screws on a Cobra, the bottom is a drain only, the middle is the fill and the top is only to vent. Filling in any other manner can cause air pockets.
I think you are past cable problems, if you want to save a buck buy another Cobra but keep it in the water until you get good with the throttles.

Phil

[travisgoff]

Thanks, I will try the cable test, and I bought another drive upper and lower so I will have a spare at worst case scenario.

Catching air was a complete accident, I think I hit a decent sized wake in parallel instead of perpendicular, kinda surprised me really.

A little confused on the oil in the drive, I have not changed it yet, it was all done prior to me buying the boat and I have literally less than 45 minutes with both engines working. So when you say the middle is the fill and the top is the vent, does that mean that I don't put the oil in the top and I just fill to the middle? Or do I fill to the middle, then use the top, in that order so I don't get air pockets?

Just wondering, have not had to do it yet.

Thanks for all the tips, but still kind of thinking that I am going to be swapping drives. How hard is it to do that, it looks just a bit harder than a transmission on a car, but I am probably missing quite a bit.

-Travis

[mrfixxall]

what mop was saying is theirs three holes in the drive. Omc's lower units can be filled several ways and it will take some time to fill them..i pull yhe bottom plug first then pull the top plug and let the lower unit drain..if you see silver oil then the drive is junk,time to rebuild it...when refilling the omc lower unit you pump it in from the bottom until it comes out the middle plug hole then leave it sit for 10 min or so then pump more lube into the lower unit again til it comes out the middle hole again then screw the upper plugs back in then remove the pump hose and screw in the lower plug back in....Then remove the two upper plugs again and screw the pump hose into the lower plug on the upper half of the lower unit and pump theoil in until it comes out of the top plug or the vent hole as mop said and leave it sit for 10 min or so again then pump more lube into it and screw the top plug back into the upper housing and remove the pump hose and screw the plug back into the upper housing...Remember to inspect the gasgets or the orings on all the plugs,i usually replace them to make sure no water gets into the drives....

Make sure the lower units on the boat are not counter rotating and the spare drive you bought is the same rotation of the one that may have blown...
Im not to sure if the omc can spin either way like a bravo drive..

good luck

[travisgoff]

I pulled the top cover off the drive, where the oil dipstick screws into, and there are two gears, and after I drained the oil; at the bottom of this compartment, there are pieces of those gears, actually I could say chunks of them, sitting down there.

I have another drive now, upper and lower, and they look the same, but how do I know if the ratio is correct? Can I count the the teeth on the gears in the upper, or is it something in the lower? Is there a way to identify if it will work on my boat?

Also the fin is cracked on the new lower, can I use a cold weld to fix it, or do I need to swap out the housing. I have not seperated the upper and the lower on my broke drive yet, so I am not sure if the lower is damaged or not, but my guess is that most likely there are problems down there as well with as bad as the upper gears are.

It also looks like the oil level might have been low, when I pulled the cover off, only half of the gear that connects to the u-joints was covered, but on the other drive, almost 3/4 or more is covered. Using the dipstick, it stilled showed oil, but it was below the line. I am thinking, or hoping, that this was what caused it to go bad, does anyone think that this might have been the case or am I grasping at straws?

Any help you guys can give me would be appreciated.

By the way, thanks for the oil filling help, I would have never known to start from the drain and work my way up. I am glad I learned this now, because Its not funny how expensive it can be to learn these things.

-Travis

[travisgoff]

I am reposting this on a new thread so the topic is more relevant.