steering issue

[stormy123]

hey guys got the ol boat out for the second time this year n noticed that the steering was extremly hard to turn left at bout half throttle, its cable steering, any idea on what that could be, also got the boat up to almost wot and went to trim it down, didnt want to work, got it home, played with the trim, n it wants to hesitate gotta keep pushing the button on it before itll engage, think the trim motors going bad or a solenoid , its a 84 omc 3.0 400 stringer, appreciate any thoughts

 

[Boomyal]

Re: steering issue

Regarding your steering, read my comments in this post. If you have any questions, post back. Tightness in the steering cable is never talked about here, at least as far as I have seen. I am sure that this malady affects many more boats than you hear about. My cable was definitely in dire need of lubrication.

http://forums.iboats.com/omc-i-o-in...teering-shaft-removal-please-help-603647.html

I do not have experience with the front mount trim jack so someone else will have to jump in. I will say this much. I just had trouble with my tilt motor. It went down but would only click on the up stroke. The bottom line was that the motor and solenoids were good but the connector between the solenoid and the motor was corroded. I pulled the connector apart, cleaned the terminals, applied di-electric grease to them and away the motor went. It cranked right up. The moral of the story is check all you connectors, forthwith.

 

[stormy123]

Re: steering issue

went out n checked out the steerin pulled back the ittle plastic flaps n both end of the cables , now the drums didnt have any grease on them , sorta like dry grease, whats the best way, spray them down with pb blaster and pack them real good with marine grease, will that get some grease up in the sheath

 

[Boomyal]

Re: steering issue

went out n checked out the steerin pulled back the ittle plastic flaps n both end of the cables , now the drums didnt have any grease on them , sorta like dry grease, whats the best way, spray them down with pb blaster and pack them real good with marine grease, will that get some grease up in the sheath

There are two zerk fittings for the steering shaft. One is underneath the gear at the rear side of the intermediate housing and one is forward of the drum where the shaft rides in the intermediate housing. The forward zerk is tough to get to but it is accessible if you look closely. Those are both important locations to grease but have very small bearing surfaces and would have relatively little resistance unless there is significant corrosion. If after greasing them your steering does not loosen up, then you have a cable issue as described in my post.

You will see no grease on the cables on the drum itself. If that is what you are looking at, then you are in the wrong place. The issue is either on the shaft ends (fore and aft) or in the cable ways themselves/