Saturday, April 9, 2011

OMC Marine Parts May Still Be Found From Some Dedicated Stockists

By Sean Edwards


Although Outboard Marine Company is now dissolved its engines, sterndrives and other products still operate in many parts of the globe. Like all products, the need repair and maintenance from time to time, including replacements. Owners of these products are in luck; they can still get OMC marine parts from distributors that have purposefully set-up stocks of original and compatible OMC items.

Although the firm no longer exists, many of its engines and sterndrives remain in operation around the world. Happily owners of these products can still source replacement items for many OMC products including its popular Cobra sterndrive motor system. During the 1980s, the company was a major player in the engine and sterndrive market. Its Cobra, quickly became one of the largest selling sterndrive units in North America.

Over the years, the company developed many customers. Unfortunately, the firm suffered tough times following a major recall of its Cobra sterndrive in 1989. OMC ceased production in 1998 and filed for bankruptcy on 22 December 2000. It had about 7,000 employees at that time.

The cause of it woes was the Cobra sterndrive engine, launched in 1985. This unit was combined with all its OMC motors. So the sale of those units represent a large legacy population that remains in operation today that needs to be maintained. Sterndrive motors are a substitute for outboard and inboard motors to provide water propulsion. Their design is a hybrid system drawing features from both inboard and outboard motor designs.

Cobra was a big seller. When it was launched, MerCruiser had about 75 percent market share. Cobra rapidly whittled that down to less than 50 percent. But things soon turned sour.

The Cobra units however quickly started to develop a bad reputation for malfunction stemming from shift cables that damaged the gear sets. This issue led to a complete recall of all Cobra sterndrive units in 1989. That recall had a severe financial strain on the company and its fortunes soon took a dive. Its engine and sterndrive production was terminated in 1998. The engine production assets owned by OMC, including the machining facility at Andrews in North Carolina, were sold in March 2001 to Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP). BRP subsequently divested the machining facility in October 2004 to TEAM Industries.

To recap, OMC products owners can source OMC marine parts from Volvo Penta (VP). This seems to be connected with OMC having had a tight commercial relationship with VP from 1989 through to 1997. Additionally, product owners may search out several distributors that have chosen to gather and stock OMC original OMC items plus OMC-compatibles, including Cobra-compatibles. These distributors play an important role for owners of OMC products. Some of these distributors have a Web presence.




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