the drive is the limiting factor. I always said that OMC engineers smoked a lot of dope, the electro shift proves it. Just imagine two engineers talking... "Hey, I got this idea, lets stick an electromagnet in the bottom of this drive to make it shift(insert Beavis and Butthead laugh), then stick the whole thing under water(laugh, laugh, cough,cough). Better yet, we'll use these gears made out of faucet handles to transfer all the load of the engine(laugh, laugh, cough, cough)"
The electroshift shifting actually worked pretty good, smooth and positive, it was limited by HP and the ever popular high throttle shift, but the tilt mechanism, ball gears, worm drive steering, and the rubber boot around the drive were more than enough to offset its rare good feature.Its no wonder they finally gave up and contracted Volvo to build their drives. If you think this drive is weird, you aught to take a look at a hydromechanical drive
|