advice on steering cable

[scott craven]

The steering on my 16' K&C has been getting stiff, so i greased the nipples on the steering tube, which only made it worse ??
have disconnected the rod to the motor, and the motor swings freely.
The teleflex cable was replaced 2 years ago, but assume it's
corroded inside.
Anybody replaced one of these and is it something i could tackle
myself ?
Not sure how to identify correct length of cable ??

thanks for any advice !

 

[wolf]

I have been when I had used a cable put gear oil in them but now that I dont have that type of system RS you can have the gear oil gun and the little bit of gear oil thats left as the new boat is hydrolic so I wont be needing it anymore. Grease gets stiff and hard especially the colder it gets and puttting gear oil in them usually frees it up a bit. send me an pm and we can hook up for a bevie



Wolf

 

[Time]

Noticed mine was stiffening up the other day so I cleaned the grease off the exposed end of the rod with a penetrating/fogging oil and just kept working the motor back and forth and after a few dozen swings I got it back to moving freely. (If it is quite stiff, don't over pressure the system by trying to force it with the steering wheel, it is possible to strip the gears under the steering wheel - try flipping it back and forth by manually turning the motor when standing behind it.)
Maybe give that a try. Also try to heat up the tube that the rod slides in and out of. Don't use a torch but maybe hang a heat lamp or trouble light on it and make a bit of a tent around it to trap the heat.
At 2 years old the cable should not be corroded inside.

Part of the winter program (I have now learned) is to use the steering system to turn the motor back and forth a couple dozen times every few weeks or each month (whenever I'm down by the boat) and, when I finish, to leave the motor turned so that the rod is fully inserted into the tube on the motor.

Hope this helps.

 

[scott craven]

Thanks, i have already tried your suggestion with minimal
success. The existing steering is rack and pinion which i understand
is inferior to the rotary cable steering.
I bought a new rotary cable this a.m. now the trick is to figure out how to install it !