jamieslib

how does the 5.7 king cobra hold up? are there any aftermarket gears ect.... to make them stronger????? i havent herd anything good about them so far

Seastang

If they are the drives with the cone clutch,which I think they are, I have a pair of the same(and a spare) in my Z33 donzi with 509s they are as good as you treat them,dont leave the water to often and dont strait arm them out of the hole.
Parts are hard to find,at least where I have been looking.
P.S cone cluctch is brass and you shouldn't use synthetic gear oil. Good luck they should last with 5.7 litre

mopower

Push comes to shove , I heard the new Volvo Cobra SX will bolt right up to your existing transom assy

Carbon Footprint

Don't believe what the bias merc owners say, A properly adjusted and maintained cobra is STRONGER than an alpha .

I saw your other post, is your engine omc or merc? The omc has an electronic shift assist that can be tricky, it lowers your rpm by retarding the ignition, so that shifts aren't as hard. Do a google search on omc cobra, you will find alot of useful info and some tech articles worth reading.

Dave M

What he said. I had good luck with the Cobra I owned. Except for the shift problem. I had a hard time finding a mechanic with Cobra expertise in my area.

outdrive man

you have got the regular clutch dog cobra, the drive that seastang is refering to is the joint vevture drive that became the volvo sx. as for synthetic gear lube that is the only stuff to use. the shift cone in the sx, sx cobra drives is not brass it is nedox. the only fully omc cone clutch drive produced went with the gm 454 engine. they only made it for like one or two years and parts are scarce, but i am sure that this is not what you have. now as for what mopower said about an sx bolting to a cobra transom assy, you will need to change the bell hsg inside the gimbal and the shift cable along with it. you will also need a seawater pump for the crankshaft . as for after market/ more durable parts for your drive, no one makes them. not worth the r and d for something that hasn`t been made in ten years.

mopower

[QUOTE=outdrive man] now as for what mopower said about an sx bolting to a cobra transom assy, you will need to change the bell hsg inside the gimbal and the shift cable along with it. you will also need a seawater pump for the crankshaft . [QUOTE]

Like I said..."I heard you can"...I didn't say it was gospel. Sorry for the mistake.

Liberator21

I've had a Cobra drive behind a 383 stroker for the past 3 seasons, and a mildly worked 350 for 7 seasons before that. It's been holding up well. The important thing is to make sure your shift cable is properly adjusted, and that your shift assist is working. The shift assist actually scatters the spark to make engine rpms come down for the shift. Parts are readily available from Bombardier. My friend has been an OMC (and Evinrude, Johnson) dealer for as long as I can remember, and there is no trouble getting anything a customer needs. Also, Dennis Moore told me that GLM has come out with high strength clutch gears for the Cobra. I was supposed to test a set, but I never got back to him on that. As Outdrive Man said, it is a clutch dog Cobra. The cone clutch was only offered for one or two years on the King Cobra which is the big block drive, and the case looks different from the cone clutch King Cobra. Even though your small block drive says King Cobra, it's actually a standard cobra drive. Sticking the "King" on there just adds confusion. It drives my friend nuts. And yes, a properly adjusted Cobra drive IS stronger than an Alpha.

Paul

outdrive man

the upper is the same as a standard cobra, the lower has a larger gearset. mopower i wasn`t trying to start chit, i was just trying to lessen the confusion regarding the cobra. as for parts avalibility i am a dealer and certain parts are becoming nla, trick is to find a dealer with a good supply. glm is actually making allot of the lowers for brp and relabeling them, but you didn`t hear that here.

mopower

No problem . I was just repeating what I had "heard"...somebody else was the one that was wrong

I ran a shift dog style King Cobra behind a 625 hp 540 Ford for 3 seasons with no probs. other than the shift module went south on me and had to be change. This also required removing one of the micro switches as the new module was "upgraded" and didn't require it.
I liked the King Cobra better than any Bravo I had , particularly the water pump that took 10 minutes to change