1995 Stratos 284 - stiff steering - rack and pinnion

[big2na]

Noticed pass year or so my steering has gotten progressively harder to turn. Specifically to the left. I’d like to fix it. Does anyone have any experience here. Is this something I can fix by replacing a specific part under the helm or do I need to buy the whole R&P system? If I do where can I find the the part number Or does someone know which part it is?

has anyone done this replacement on a boat like this?

its a dual rack rack and pinion system

any advice would be great.

[Jumping Jimmy]

I had a couple Winner bass boats back in the day and I had to replace the steering cables on them. Same issue as you they got harder to turn as they got older. I removed the two steering racks under the console from the helm. Disconnect the cables from the engine. Now the job is to remove the old cables. Depending on clearance at the engine you may have to move the engine to remove the old cables. I did not have to do this. It takes some work but pull out the old cable towards the console. Attach some small rope to each cable to use pulling in the replacement cables. I ordered my replacement cables from Overton's Marine but I would assume other marine places would carry them (West Marine). It is not a complicated job but it can be a PIA job accessing everything.