Froze steering
 

Any hints, techniques, advise. Sledgehammer maybe? Just realized my steering is froze up on my boat:doh: Ah boat ownership nice relaxing time on the water if you can use the damn thing.:smash: Thanks Paul

the cable froze up on my old boat.. i took the whole assm. out and beat the stainless thingy out of the aluminum sleeve, gave it a wetsand with oil and cleaned them out good and put it back together. lasted a year then froze again so i bought a new cable for a hundred bucks which i shoulda done in the first place.

the stainless and aluminum don't mix and oxidize or something like that.

have you checked to see if you have enough fluid in your steering colum? some times if you have not quite enough it will tighten right up.

take it out and replace it, do not try an save it, it is not worth it. Hopefully you can swing a hammer far enough to knock it out. use a 5 pound sledge. When storing for the off seas you should alway make sure it is completly in the tube and grease well, this helps a lot.

That is if it is hydraulic, I am assuming he has teleflex cable

First thing, Does the motor move, when detached from the steering?
2) Does the steering move after being greased at the grease fitting?
3) Replace is if #2 fails. It is not worth the hassle. I have alos replace the steering component of the teleflex at the same time as I forced the steering .

The best solution is the each fall make sure the rear grease fitting is lubricated in the fall and detached from the engine. Grease the engine and cover all shrouding from moisture. Re-grease as needed in the spring. If you leave it exposed during the layoff you are asking for trouble.

Bill

If your going to take it out of the tube the bag it with grease past the fitting. I have found that is you make sure is it greased and inside the tube your in a better position. I have also have had to replace helms that were stripped out when the owner tried to muscle it free.

That is what I did this year and it has froze. Every other year I turned the motor so the rod was out of the cylinder and had no problem.:doh: Oh well figures. I guess I am going to have to figure out how to get the thing apart and replace it. Wish I could afford hydraulic but that is not in the cards this year. Not sure what I have to replace the whole set up from wheel to motor or just a cable. There is no grease fitting, but I have seen them. I was just saying to the guy at work that froze steering has never happened to me. Can you say jinx. Thanks. P.

just the cable. they come in different lengths.
you gota get it out of the sleeve thats the tough part.
caco-cola will losen up the oxidation

You should have 2 grease fittings on the tube, if you don't then do you have threaded holes? What motor do you have?

That is putting it lightly hahah, I sure hope he has an open transom so he has room to swing the hammer

Honda 90. No grease fittings or threaded holes. No open transome either. What did you think this was going to be a walk in the park. I am sure it is worse case F'in sernerio. You know the kind of problem that the guy says oh that's wierd. I am not a pessimist for nutin. you know 90% of the time you are right and 10% of the time you are pleasingly surprised.

Post a pic of the layout, maybe we can help with a plan of attack, I personally have done this over 20 times atleast. Not having an open transom sucks, but it is not impossible, besides maybe with luck it is not siezed in there really bad.

So I need to smash the rod out of the tube from the opposite end. So the rod shoots out of the end it slides in and out of. Yeah that's going to happen. Probably hit the splashwell with the rod so you can't get it out even if you get it loosened up. Can't I just unbolt the whole shabang and get a new everything and bolt it on the motor? One with grease fittings. I am starting to hate boats. :doh: I am so glad I kept my tin boat

I will take a photo tomorrow so you can observe see my lovely little set up. I really appreciate the help.:spin: I know I can fix it I just need some guidance. I am set to go to work tomorow nite and build one out of titamium so this never happen's again. Thanks. Paul

Yes you can, but the tube it slides into is usually the pivot tube that the whole motor swings on. does it have a large nut on either side? Also you do not have to use a sledge hammer, in tight spaced areas I have rigged up a little hydraulic car jack haha, I used it like a porta power and it worked pretty damn good, but you hav eto hav ethe spance, and you have to have enough space to put a board behind it to distribute the pressure.

Yup I got large nuts, not me the motor.

then that is your pivot tube, and it baffles me that Honda did not put grease fittings in there! Are you sure there is none underneath? if you take the pivot tube off the whole engine drops off, so you will either have to take the engine off the transom, or find some way to secure it with a jack underneath, you will have to take the load of the tube to slide it out as well. OMC tubes go for about 60 bucks, I have never done a Honda one so I do not know exactly what is involved.

I will take picture and look for fittings tomorrow. I need to look at problem a little closer. This problem is all new to me. Thanks for your insight. Tomorrow. Screw it I am going out there right now with a flashlight to see if I can find any fittings. I will post tomorrow. Thanx. Paul

Yeah take a long hard look and do like striperman36 said and dissconnect the steering from the motor to make sure it is a steering issue and not a motor issue. Then if you eliminate the motor as the problem, dissconnect the cable from the helm and make sure it is a cable problem, not a helm problem. this is all easy to do so don't worry.

Cut cable at motor, slide shaft out of motof, disconnect at helm, duct tape new cable to old cable at motor side and pull whole thing thru from helm end.

In most cases you do not want to do that, your steering is stiff and unruley and usualy tied to your wiring, and on most smaller boats you can just drop everything down and carefully remove the steering cable and pop a new one in with less hassle. Trying to mouse the cable could damage the wiring.

Done it many times with no problem. Have to make sure wiring is out of the way and not attatched to cable(common sense). Only way to do it on CC when cable is under deck. Paul. check your PM.

Oh his is under the deck? I was under the impression his was rail mounted.

If you don't have any grease fitting on the tube already, you can drill two holes for the fittings, but before you put the fitting in get some kind of penetrating oil and get some into the tube and let it sit for a while before you get out the hammer. Heat also helps persuade things to move. After you get it out, put the grease fittings in and use corrosion block grease to lube it up well, before you put it away for the winter.

Professer - I have a Honda 90 and had the same thing happen. The fix is not that difficult. The Honda has a steel steering tube not stainless. The steering cable is stainless the salt water gets in there the steerer tube rusts and the whole thing locks up. The two grease fittings lubricate the tilt tube only NOT the steering tube. Here is what you need to do. Disconnect the steering arm from the engine to the steering cable. If you have enough play in the steering cable you simply beat the steering cable out of the steering tube, you will need something that fits inside of the steering tube as you will need to rap it all the way out. If you don't have enough play in your cable you will need to disconnect it from the helm so it will move as you beat the crap out of the cable. Once out you need a wire brush like a 20ga shotgun brush and clean/hone the steering tube out using WD or alike. Hone clean hone clean until rust color is gone. Go buy a Steersman steering nut with grease fitting (the Honda is 1" not the more common 7/8") and put that on in place of the stock nut. I needed a stainless flat washer to take up some gap as the Steersman Nut only goes on 4 or 5 threads. Now grease it up and your all set. Mine has been fine for 5 years.

There is absolutely NO drilling required as suggested by some other posters.

P.S. Don't try to force it with the steering wheel or you will break the helm. You can have my broken one if you like..........

Thanks guys. I did see the grease fittings but I also thought they were for the tilt. After I disconnect the cable which way am I pushing,beating the rod out left to right looking at the engine from the rear with port on the left? So I disconnect the nut on the starboard side and then hopefully it just pulls right out:hs: and then I clean out the tube. Well I am off to try it. P.

As your looking at the engine from inside the boat I'm assuming your cable runs under the deck to your left. You need to unbolt the left nut. The right one is the one that gets replaced by the Steersman.

The cable will only pull out easily if the cable is frozen but I will bet the cable shaft is frozen inside the steering tube and the cable itself is fine.

I had this happen on my Honda 90 to. I don't understand why Honda cheeps out on the tube. Amazing.
Good luck Prof. It's just grunt work from here.

Bill

Striperman36 I have that exact rig shown in your Avatar less the T-top

Well removed the nut on the starboard side, turned the wheel and the shaft came out as far as the wheel would turn, about 10". The part of the shaft that the motor attaches too, has a flat milled on it and a thru hole for bolt to attach to motor via linkage did not move. Is there a shaft inside a shaft inside the tube? I banged on the what seems like the shaft inside the tube, the part the motor attaches to, and it did budge a little, pushing inside the tube. I need to get this thing out I assume. Lots of cruded up grease inside there. Do I continue to bang that end all the way out of the tube? P.

Yup, you have just proved it it stuck int he tube, get a 3/8" Ratchet extension and use it and a hammer to push the steering rod out. I use the extension because it fits in there real nice on the OMC's.

I just talked to the teleflex company and they seem to think the shaft has broken thus leaving the part sticking out of the port side but allowing the starboard side to come out. There damn online site is down so I can't see what the hell they are saying. Maybe I should just hack saw the shaft off and push it thru to the port side instead of going all the way thru to the starboard side. Seems I will have to replace the whole cable anyway if broken. I will put some liquid wrench into the tube and wait an hour to see if it loosens up the thing. P.

If you completely loosen the starboard side nut and the motor turns to where you see cable then turns back the cable is fine. I still think the shaft with the milled flat is stuck in the steering tube so do what Scott said........

You will be bashing the cable out from port to starboard or back through the steering tube. If your steering cable is restrained or has no room to flex then you must detach your cable from the helm so the cable has somewhere to go as you smash away

OK I got the whole thing out of the tube. Now what? Replace the whole cable. The tube is really scumbed out. Lots of hardened grease and rust. I will have to make something up at work tonite to hone it out. The shaft is pretty bad too. Seems like it is still in one piece but pretty ugly. Will I have to replace from the helm to the motor. Probably a PIA trying to snake that thing from the motor to the helm. I assume that it is a 1 piece set up. Thanks for holding my hand. Paul

If you turn your wheel does it do so freely? Does the cable move in and out of the casing? The inside of my steering tube looked awful but clean-up nice with the WD and brush. For the brush I bought a 3/4" dia wire brush in the Plumbing Dept at Home Depot and had a 15" drill bit extension which I put in a drill and honed away. The stainless cable shaft clean-up with steel wool........The cable/sheath is one piece from helm to engine and come in different lengths which you need to match. They are stiff and not easy or fun to put in.

The absolute must of this project is the Steersman

http://www.steeringguard.com/html/whatitdoes.html

It's exactly like mine but I have a 90 Johnson SPL

Wow I feel like an idiot for not posting that, I have one, I totally forgot to meantion it. It is just one of those things that are so nesessary that you assume everyone has one.

Jeff is right, the steersman is an absolute must, and is the reaon your in the trouble you are in. On all the new teleflex cables the replacment part number in right behind the steering shaft, look carefully and it should be there, this makes it easier to replace.

I think I will replace the whole thing. Funny but I talked to the people at the teleflex place and they helped me out a bit. They told me under no circumstances to put one of those grease fittings on.They said the grease will end up going up the cable and drag all the crud up into the cable and ruining the cable much faster. It supplys too much grease. They told me if you boat in salt water you should take apart and clean and re lube at least twice a year min. I don't know, but I will definetly take apart and clean twice a year from now on after this fiasco. Thanks to everyone who helped. Hopefully I won't have to bother anyone with the replacement procedure:rolleyes: .. Paul

steering guard is an awesome thing. I would use it.
But the real key is to keep it well lubricated however you do it.
Replacing the whole setup every 4 years also is good preventitve maintainence.

Bill