hello boaters !
I just got my first used boat. And I thought that someone might use
something that helped me fix my cable steering.
My boat needed some work on the steering - The steering wheel would not turn
very easily. the rack and pinion steering on my boat has a nut on the back
of the unit that can be loosened and then the steering is easier. I took it
apart and re-greased it and adjusted the torque of the nut.
Second was a problem that this did not fix. For some reason the steering
would not turn all the way to the left. So I had a boat that would turn
fully starboard, and only partially portside.
I tried to lube the cable with grease through the cable grease fitting. The
steering was even more hard to turn left!
I was given a Clymer outboard shop manual with the boat. I tried to find
anything about steering, and could only find one caption of steering
relevant info - it reads:
CAUTION
When lubricating steering cable, make sure that it is fully retracted into
the cable housing. Lubricating the cable while extended can cause a
hydraulic lock to occur.
I tried to figure out how that this could have locked up the steering. It
seems that the cable had a HYDRAULIC LOCK. I unscrewed and removed the
grease fitting, and tried turning the steering wheel to the left. It was
hard to turn but little by little the grease was pushing out of the hole in
the cable and turning further left. I continued to turn the steering left
wards in a pumping motion and it freed up the cable to full left and pumped
more grease from the hole. I replaced the grease fitting and the steering
works again, motor turns all the way left.
If anybody can use this information then I am happy to help. I had to read
70 pages of the manual to find this out but reading the whole manual is very
useful when I had run out of ideas.
greg
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