DJ_Allatoona
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2008
- Messages
- 187
Repowering my mid-70's Starcraft with a used 75 HP motor that sat for many years. It's all ready to go, except for the steering cable. Just telling you that it is "stuck" does not do justice to the word "stuck". It is Excaliber.
The cable on the helm side had been just cut off when I got the motor, and the end that goes through the tube had clearly been pounded on. It's not mushroomed per se, but the hole is definitely not round any more.
Three days I've been working on this thing. I finally managed to make the cable turn by using a huge pipe wrench and all of my weight. Then I banged the end flush with the tube, and about a half-inch of the outer casing of the cable is out of the other side. The inner part of the cable spins freely.
I've been murdering the end of the cable with a 4-pound hammer and piece of rebar trying to punch it through the tube and the damn thing will not budge a millimeter. It's the hardest physical thing I've ever done with this boat and I am FAILING!
I don't get it. It's a metal tube inside of a metal tube. How rusty and corroded can it be to stand up to this punishment and not move? I'm really pounding it, and might as well be banging on a bank vault.
Obviously trying to hammer it through backwards isn't working, so my next move is to grind off the starboard side flush to that half-inch of outer casing and try to pound it out FORWARD. Maybe then I can grab it again with the pipe wrench. I ran out of steam and profanity today, plus I didn't have any way to cut the cable.
The tilt tube does move, so maybe I'll just replace the tube if I can figure that out. Hopefully I can just tap in a new tube by pushing the old one out? I "really" don't want to hoist the motor again and run the risk of the motor coming off the moufting bracket at the tube location.
I'd love to know a tip to getting this super-stuck steering cable out.
The cable on the helm side had been just cut off when I got the motor, and the end that goes through the tube had clearly been pounded on. It's not mushroomed per se, but the hole is definitely not round any more.
Three days I've been working on this thing. I finally managed to make the cable turn by using a huge pipe wrench and all of my weight. Then I banged the end flush with the tube, and about a half-inch of the outer casing of the cable is out of the other side. The inner part of the cable spins freely.
I've been murdering the end of the cable with a 4-pound hammer and piece of rebar trying to punch it through the tube and the damn thing will not budge a millimeter. It's the hardest physical thing I've ever done with this boat and I am FAILING!
I don't get it. It's a metal tube inside of a metal tube. How rusty and corroded can it be to stand up to this punishment and not move? I'm really pounding it, and might as well be banging on a bank vault.
Obviously trying to hammer it through backwards isn't working, so my next move is to grind off the starboard side flush to that half-inch of outer casing and try to pound it out FORWARD. Maybe then I can grab it again with the pipe wrench. I ran out of steam and profanity today, plus I didn't have any way to cut the cable.
The tilt tube does move, so maybe I'll just replace the tube if I can figure that out. Hopefully I can just tap in a new tube by pushing the old one out? I "really" don't want to hoist the motor again and run the risk of the motor coming off the moufting bracket at the tube location.
I'd love to know a tip to getting this super-stuck steering cable out.
