wrote in message
roups.com...


There was a guy (Steve Wynn?) who invented the sterndrive whilst working
for Karl and Karl didn't think it was a good idea. He left for Volvo
Penta
and that really irked Kiekiefer. OMC used the ball gear to get around it
until the patent expired on it. Then they went to the Cobra drive.

b.

Actually Jim Winn was the "front guy" to Volvo for the idea of the stern
drive, as it was really thought up by Charlie Strang who was Merc's chief
engineer at the time. Jim and Charlie had to talk to Volvo and swear them to
secrecy as long as Carl was alive. In the late '60s, Strang became OMC's
chief engineer. He was instrumental in the OMC Cobra stern drive that came
out when Merc and Volvo's patents expired. Strang was the father of the
stern drive and had a hand in the design of the Volvo, MercCruiser, and OMC
Cobra stern drives.

Bill Grannis
service manager