My boat has a single cable running to a "tube" that apparently steers
the motor. The wheel was very hard to turn and upon examination, it
appears that this 'tube' is frozen and the cable is broken.

Is this an expensive repair and/or is it something someone moderately
mechanical could do himself?

Thanks

Tillius

Step one is to verify if the cable or the engine is the problem. Take the
rod from the motor loose from the cable rod and see if you can turn the
steering wheel easily and the rod moves in and out. If it does - problem is
in the motor itself.
If it still is hard to move try and run the cable all the way in (steering
wheel full left). Then remove the nut that holds the cable to the motor (on
the side the cable enters the motor). Now remove the cable. If stuck - you
will have to take a hammer and tap it out.
Now see if the steering wheel works the cable easily. If it does, the
steering cable is fine and you just need to clean the tube on the motor,
regrease everything, and reinstall.
If not - you will probably need a new cable. Remove the old one and measure
carefully. Order one the same length.
You will want to clean the motor tube either way.
Purchase a long drill bit extension and a wire pipe cleaning brush. Cut the
handle off and insert in the drill extension and tighten. Now you can use
the drill and some oil and clean the inside of the tube.

--
Tony
my boats at http://t.thomas.home.mchsi.com

"tillius" wrote in message
om...
My boat has a single cable running to a "tube" that apparently steers
the motor. The wheel was very hard to turn and upon examination, it
appears that this 'tube' is frozen and the cable is broken.

Is this an expensive repair and/or is it something someone moderately
mechanical could do himself?

Thanks

Tillius

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




"Tony Thomas" wrote in message
news:cSJDc.126045$Sw.37024@attbi_s51...
Step one is to verify if the cable or the engine is the problem. Take the
rod from the motor loose from the cable rod and see if you can turn the
steering wheel easily and the rod moves in and out. If it does - problem
is
in the motor itself.
If it still is hard to move try and run the cable all the way in (steering
wheel full left). Then remove the nut that holds the cable to the motor
(on
the side the cable enters the motor). Now remove the cable. If stuck -
you
will have to take a hammer and tap it out.
Now see if the steering wheel works the cable easily. If it does, the
steering cable is fine and you just need to clean the tube on the motor,
regrease everything, and reinstall.
If not - you will probably need a new cable. Remove the old one and
measure
carefully. Order one the same length.
You will want to clean the motor tube either way.
Purchase a long drill bit extension and a wire pipe cleaning brush. Cut
the
handle off and insert in the drill extension and tighten. Now you can use
the drill and some oil and clean the inside of the tube.

--
Tony
my boats at http://t.thomas.home.mchsi.com

"tillius" wrote in message
om...
My boat has a single cable running to a "tube" that apparently steers
the motor. The wheel was very hard to turn and upon examination, it
appears that this 'tube' is frozen and the cable is broken.

Is this an expensive repair and/or is it something someone moderately
mechanical could do himself?

Thanks

Tillius

"Tony Thomas" wrote in message news:cSJDc.126045$Sw.37024@attbi_s51...
Step one is to verify if the cable or the engine is the problem. Take the
rod...

Thanks for the info. I'll take the motor rod loose from the cable rod
and see if I can clean up the cable rod. I definitely need a new
cable, as I had my 9 year old turn the wheel and he was able to twist
the cable into two pieces (yeah, i know if a 9 year old could break
it, it needed replacing anyway.)

Thanks

Tillman