Frozen steering

[SS66]

My boat has been sitting for two years. The motor seems to be 'frozen' in place because it wont turn. Its a late 70's maybe early to mid 80's 80 HP Mercury. Do these have some type of lock that makes it so they wont turn? Or do I just need to lube up the little metal bar that goes into the motor? If so will WD40 be ok?<br />Sorry for such newbie questions.. but what more can you expect from a newbie?

 

[DJ]

Re: Frozen steering

SS66,<br /><br />It could be frozen in three possible places.<br /><br />1. Where the cable goes through the engine tilt tube.<br /><br />Remove the tilt pin-from end of cable and remove nut, on opposite side. Try to pull cable out of engine tilt tube. If succesful, lube with white lithium grease.<br /><br />2. The cable itself.<br /><br />Replace the cable. You DO NOT want to risk breaking a steering cable while underway. It can be DISASTEROUS.<br /><br />3. The motor swivel bracket is frozen.<br /><br />Once the cable is removed from the tilt tube, make sure then engine turns freely. There should be one or more grease zerks on the engine swivel bracket.

 

[70johnson]

Re: Frozen steering

I cleaned my tilt tube the other day by spraying degreaser in it and using a gun cleaning wire brush for a 20 Ga. shotgun. It was messing but real clean when finished. Then I coated the piston on the cable with marine great. Real smooooove now.