After the long winter my steering is stuck. Other than a little play in the steering wheel I can’t get the motor to budge. I tried disconnecting the arm from the motor and tried tapping the arm lightly while applying light pressure on the steering wheel. Neither attempt helped. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks
Bigger hammer and a block of wood.
Iain Pelto
Edgewater 185CC “Jumpin’ Bean II”
Native Manta Ray 14
Don’t put much pressure on the wheel. You’ll strip the gears. Try to flex the cable as much as possible. Next disconnect the cable housing from the engine bracket. After you unscrew the cable housing, try to turn the wheel. That will show you if it’s stuck in the engine bracket or in the cable housing. If the cable will move in the cable housing, you may have to drive the rod out of the engine bracket with a mallet and wooden dowel. There may be gunked up grease inside the engine bracket. If not, with the cable loose from the engine, flex is as much as possible. It that doesn’t work, disconnect it from the other end and replace it.
With the help of a mallet I was able to move the cable in, but now can not get it back the other direction. I did leave enough of the rod out to try and get some leverage. Any ideas?
Put a crescent wrench on the flat end and turn it back and forth, then
try to work it out. Spray it down with brake cleaner to loosen the dried up grease.
my old yammie 60, i just threw a shoulder and it broke free. im guessing water got into my grease and froze. i then used t9 boeshield almost after every trip in lieu of grease (an old racers tip). it seemed to work fine…sold the boat soon after so no long term reports, but it worked very smoothly while i used it.
had the same problem on my yamaha 60. couldnt get loose to save my life. ended up taking it to whitton marine on clements ferry rd near hwy 41 ( closest to the house and seels had a 2week delay). they did a great job and had my boat done 2days later. they also warranty their work.
High tide 1602
60 yamaha
Sometimes you can use a torch to heat it up and that will do it…not too much heat, of course.
the problem will return and i always found mine stuck after sitting for awhile. whitton got to it quick and made it smooth as butter.
what did the work at whitton cost?
quote:I could have used P-Bug's advice a year ago. I ended up throwing 1000 buck at it and upgraded to hydraulic. :stuck_out_tongue:
Originally posted by Palmetto BugDon’t put much pressure on the wheel. You’ll strip the gears. Try to flex the cable as much as possible. Next disconnect the cable housing from the engine bracket. After you unscrew the cable housing, try to turn the wheel. That will show you if it’s stuck in the engine bracket or in the cable housing. If the cable will move in the cable housing, you may have to drive the rod out of the engine bracket with a mallet and wooden dowel. There may be gunked up grease inside the engine bracket. If not, with the cable loose from the engine, flex is as much as possible. It that doesn’t work, disconnect it from the other end and replace it.
BGF’s tip on the crecent wrench is spot on as well.
Best of luck
Disconnect the nut that attaches the Teleflex cable to the motor. Turn the wheel and see if the cable moves back and forth. If steering rod is stuck in the motor drive it out with dowel. Rub the steering rod with steel wool and a solvent to remove the built up corrosion and old grease. Take a 12 gauge shootgun wire cleaning brush and run it in and out of the tube to clean grease and corrision in side the tube. Once you get it cleaned enough for the steering rod to move freely through the tube get a Cable Buddy kit from west marine (cat number 398750) install nut provided on motor and then attach teleflex nut to it. then remove filling cap and add the Max lube lubricant to the assembly. did this to my motor ten years ago and the cable has not stuck since. Sorry to repeat some of the suggestions mentioned above but that max lube stuff will prevent future problems.
Replace it. A new cable is not terribly expensive. If you get lose from the motor you are half done. If you have a typical teleflex setup, installing a new one is a snap. That way you are not stressing the gears in the helm and you’re good to go.
Did mine last year after working it lose repeatedly for a year or so. Thought of would be a tough job. It was about an hour start to finish. Should have done it long before.
17’ Henry O Hornet
26’ Palmer Scott
Not trying to hijack someone’s thread but, how do you figure out what replacement cable to buy?
One way is by looking on the existing cable it should be stamped on there somewhere - I think near the motor. The other is to use a formula provided by the manufacturer for figuring length. Yet another way is to pull the existing cable and measure it or take it to the retailer and say I want one just like it.
I prefered way #1 so I could tape the ends together and fish the new one through with the existing cable.
In my experience unless the plastic shroud on the cable is cracked open then the cable itself is usually not the problem but rather the accumulated grease and corrosion in the tube it passes though on the motor. However do whatever works and when installing the new cable put one of those lube things from west marine on and your will probably significantly extend the life of the replacement. Matter of fact after all this discussion i am going to get one and put it on my new boat this weekend. Nothing worse than unresponsive steering. Had to ride home from shrimp baiting a long time ago straddling the motor to steer, glad i had someone competent with me to run the throttle.
Brake fluid to break-up the old grease nad help loosen.
EWC
You gotta love the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Ditto on hungrynecks sugesstions about using 12ga bronze brush to clean tube all out and then put one of the aftermarkets nuts on that have a zerk grease fitting on it and keep greased. Did that 10 years ago and not a single prob with steering since.
Russ B.
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
It’s what hungryneck said. You got to remove the big silver nut and expose that inner part of the shaft to clean and lubricate. I always worked on the exposed rod that I could see on the port side of the engine but really that gets frequent lubrication and is rarely the problem. When you pull off the big silver nut on the starboard side and work on it from there you’ll be shaking out old grease that looks like cornflakes. Jeeze no wonder it won’t move!!!
Ian Harle
22 ft Sisu hardtop downeaster