OMC outdrive gear problems (possibilities of converting) 1

[bearisle]

I don't know if I am in the right forum, but.....I have a boat with a OMC sterndrive. I have gone through 3 sets of gears and have heard of many other similar nightmares with OMC's. I heard they can convert to Volvo Penta. Does anyone have info on this or any other solutions to my problem?

 

[TheBlacksmith]

Yes, if it is a "Cobra"/800 series. Volvo Penta entered into a joint venture OMC with and eventually took over the OMC Cobra plant. The Volvo drive usually mates right up with Cobra engine coupler and transom sheild, but you need to put a raw water pump on the engine, OMC has it in the drive where Volvo put the cone clutch mechanism. Volvo did have a conversion kit for this that sold for about $4000-$5000 dollars in the late '90's. (I was their training manager when this kit came out.) Check with a reputable Volvo dealer in your area.

 

[Frederick]

You can get a lot more durability out of driveline components if they are properly cryogenically treated.

 

[Tmoose]

How long does it take for the unit to die? Is it clear whether the gears Or the bearings are failing? The gear handbooks have pictures of dozens of scary gear failures and list their causes. If the gear case is peeling or crawling off the gear like a glacier then there is not much hope. If the gear faces are wearing and generating debris then some gearboxes feed the junk right to the bearings. I'd make a peep hole to observe the faces of the next-and-last set of gears while they are still teenagers. If there was edge wear I'd suspect deflection from overstress and swap to the better unit. If there was uniform wear I'd use magic lube and additives and magnets and try a break-in procedure that consisted of 500 cycles of 10 repetition sets of 7 second bursts of progressively heavier use of the throttle and 30 seconds of no throttle, followed by a several minutes of gentle cruising.

 

[TheBlacksmith]

I'll just state that the "joint venture" involved fitting Volvo Penta's gears to the OMC gearcase and leave it at that.