The steering on my 90hp yamaha (2002 sea pro) has been stiffening up lately. I put some marine grease on the main bar that turns the engine, but that hasn’t helped much. Yesterday, it took a serious amount of effort to make port-side turns. It was so bad that I missed the trailer when I was trying to get the boat out at the landing! I got wedged between one of the bunks of the trailer and the floating dock!
anyway, does anyone know what I should be looking for to loosen up the steering??
thanks.
I’m having a similar problem with an F90 Yamaha. There is only one grease zerk at the bottom of the main pivot shaft. I have put a ton of grease in it. Greased at hard left, right, and 1/8 turn increments in between. It is still too stiff, and my Dad has had trouble this shrimp season because of it. I have mechanical steering with a tilt wheel.
Ought to be two grease fittings on your x-bar(horizontal) in front of motor and one fitting on the actual motor where it rotates on mount shaft(vertical). I usually pump up till I see some ooze out.
I bet your cable needs maintenance or replacement. It is easy to check. Disconnect the linkage from the end of the cable to the front of the motor. The wheel should spin very easily. I have pulled and cleaned steering cables and gotten a lot more use. But, pulling the cable can be a pain. Some boats require loosening the motor from the transom to get enough clearance to slide the cable out of the motor. Was able to do a 70 hp yammi this summer by removing 3 bolts and loosening the fourth and then pivoting on the fouth. Easy enough w/ a 70. A 90 might be to heavy. May need a lift/hoist. If this is the case on yours, I’d get a new cable and replace.
Also, the gears in the helm are quite soft. If you’re having to apply that much pressure at the wheel, you may have a catastrophic failure in the helm. Dangerous.
It is a cable setup.
I’ve greased the fittings but it’s not much better. I’ll try to disconnect as suggested and see what happens…but it sounds like I need to take a trip to Chs Marine.
If your steering setup is like the one I have on my 70 Yamaha, those 2 grease fittings do not lubricate the steering shaft. They lube the points at which the motor pivots up and down. I had to pull the steering shaft out, clean it of all the hardened on gunk and re-lube it. It is about time to do it again.
Lube the pivot points on the shaft Assy as well as the steering cable Assy. May need to disassemble cable at the engine and clean the steering tube like DF said to really get it right.
ithaca, those fitting only grease the tilt tube, not the steering.
disconnect the silver bent steering arm from the motor, and try to turn the motor by hand
if it turns freely, the problem is the boat steering
if its still stiff, then its the motor
ithaca, those fitting only grease the tilt tube, not the steering.
disconnect the silver bent steering arm from the motor, and try to turn the motor by hand
if it turns freely, the problem is the boat steering
if its still stiff, then its the motor
My bad. I had fixed a neighbors steering on her 60hp w/cable system. I thought I had to remove the x-bar after it had locked up from no grease and had to clean corrosion and reassemble. Thought I remembered telling her to keep it greased so it wouldn’t lock up but it was years ago and my memory isn’t all that good.
I got hydraulic now so I was going off memory. Dam memory, just one more thing to go bad.
probably one of the most common errors in boat maint.
most everyone thinks that greases the steering cable. and if you ask me, it should, but it doesnt.
The cable needs to be pulled out of the tilt tube. You need to reem out the tilt tube, clean all the old crap off of the cable, grease it and good to go.
But, if you continue using the boat like this, you will end up tearing up the helm too. It will wear out the helm quickly. It is always best to replace the helm and cable together because they wear together.
Update…
Disconnected the steering bar, motor turned freely, cleaned the gunk off of the steering bar, re-greased it, re-attached and still stiff. Took it to Charleston Marine, steering cable replaced money paid, problem fixed.