It's a fairly common complaint with Cobras. It's probably a worn out or
defective shift cable and the ratcheting sound is your gear set being worn
away by insufficient meshing of the shift dog. Prompt repair of the cable
might save the gears. This is not a do it yourself repair.
Jim
wrote in message
oups.com...
Well I took the boat out on Lake Mead today and had a little trouble
docking due to a new problem:

When shifting from N to FWD there's usually about a two second delay
during which a distinct ratcheting sound is heard, followed by a heavy
clunk as the gear engages. The rest of the time FWD will not engage at
all, and a faster buzz of a ratcheting noise can be heard coming from
the outdrive. Reverse works intermittantly as well but is more
reliable.

This problem just started this morning and along with the huge amount
of traffic at Callville Bay tonight I spent about two hours getting
this boat docked and back on it's trailer.

Anyone else deal with this type of problem on these outdrives?

Greg
'87 Bayliner capri
2.3 I/O OMC Cobra