Steering Cable Help????

[striper chaser]

Please excuse my lack of proper terminology here........

It looks like my steering cable is shot. There is a little play at the help, but the motor won't budge. I loosened up the cable on the starboard side where it goes into the motor mount? I tried adding grease to both "zerk" fittings and disconnected the motor from the steering bar on the port side. The motor now turns with no problem.

Now for the $10,000 question. How do I get the cable out? I gave it a few light taps with a 2 lb dead blow hammer and it did not budge . Should it pull out? Do I have to put the motor on a hoist to get it out? It seems as if the cable is seized in the area where the zerk fittings are.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

Oh, it is a 1988 140 Johnson V4 with Teleflex Safe T steering system.

[AB]

Depends. You may have to remove the motor to install the new cable. To get the old one out, soak the area where it goes into the tilt tube real good in PB Blaster or SeaFoam DeepCreep. Allow it to sit and while, and soak it again. Let the oil sit overnight, then it's gonna take a lot of work to get it out. When mine did it, I used an alignment pick (about 1ft long) and a hammer. I cut the cable with a cutoff wheel so I could hammer either end, then tapped it a little in each direction...after a few hours I eventually got it out. And mine wasn't even seized in the tube.

Now, the real million dollar question...What to replace it with. I replaced my dual cable steering with hydraulic. If you have the $$ it is the way to go. Makes boating enjoyable, almost like driving your car instead of feeling like you just went to the gym. I had to replace mine when a steering cable failed at WOT. Thank goodness someone upstairs was looking over me and I am here to talk about it. Hydraulic gives an extra safety factor too. If it fails, the motor will just stay in whatever position it was in when it failed. It can't go flopping in any direction it wants.

[striper chaser]

Thanks for the info Grant!

It is soaking right now. I'll probably check it again tomorrow afternoon. I have a cutoff tool and I am ready to use it. I am just not sure about the tube. I would imagine that the cable should come out with no problems. Guess we'll have to wait for the experts on that one. I really wish I was closer to Nashvegas! I really do not care for the Bomb tech center around here.

On replacement! I dream of a Sea Star System. Momma is not going to have that!!! We just bought a new camper and Chevy 2500HD to go along with it. Looks like it might be a Teleflex NFB or rack system.

We'll have to see what happens!

Thanks,

Tim

[AB]

Once you get it out of the tube, you can use one of them things they use to clean rifle bores to clean the tube out real nice....Sometimes they get some rust in there that you will hafta clean out.