I need help! Cant get steering cable out of my boat to replace!

[Shawnvuuu]

Hey i have a trophy 1802 and im having trouble pulling out my steering cable. I have it unhooked from the outboard and got the rack off. The part im having trouble with is that my cable seems to be stuck. Is there a certain way i should pull the cable? And is there a certain side i should pull the cable? My cable is in a plastic tube that runs through the wall of the boat . Please let me know what you guys know! Thank you!

 

[Scott Danforth]

post a picture of the tube. if its the outer sheath of the cable, that gets replaced with the cable

 

[Shawnvuuu]

Its just a big plastic 4 1/2 inch tube that all the wires and cable from the helm go through to get to the outboard. The tube runs through inside of the side wall of the boat. I have both ends disconnected, but the whole steering cable itself would barely move. I dont know if i should just cut the cable and just leave part of the cable in there and just push the new cable in myself? Or should i just try yanking it as hard as i can? And do you happen to know which end i should pull the cable from?
i will post pictures once i get back to my boat. Thanks for the reply!

 

[alldodge]

Think I understand what you have. There is a 4.5 inch tube which both the wires to the motor and the steering cable is going thru.

If this is correct I would not do some all out yanking, you would probably just do some real damage. My guess when the boat was being built, they took the steering cable and the wires and either taped or tie wrapped them together, then feed them into the tube. May have to pull them all out at once to get there.

If there is enough room, you could cut both ends off of the cable tube and feed in a new one

 

[Scott Danforth]

agreed with AD, most likely the whole bundle of wires, cables, etc was fed thru from the factory with tape or zip ties.

 

[Shawnvuuu]

Thank you so much for the replies! Its been a pain in the a** lately hahaha. But yeah all the cables and wires are in the tube... i guess im gonna try to do that, im just worried about having to disconnect all the electrical wires and then not know how to put it back together. im gonna try labeling all of it and give it a shot at disconnecting all the wires. I just wish the manufacturer thought of this while making the boat. By far the hardest steering replacement ive seen yet

thank you guys again.! I’ll update you guys!

 

[GA_Boater]

The boat builders didn't build it for you have an easy time fixing her. :facepalm:

If you can pull the wiring/cable bundle out, make sure you tie some strong twine on the bundle. It's needed to pull the bundle back through the tube. And don't bundle the steering and control cables with the wiring or when the throttle or shift cables are replaced in the future, you'll be kicking yourself.