Hydraulic steering seized - Repair places and cost

[Aridhol]

Morning, I went to head out fishing this morning only to discover I had no
steering I couldn't move it at all.

The boat is kept in a garage and thoroughly hosed down after each trip out
in the salt water and I have purged and re-greased it every season but there
has been a crack in the hose pictured below since before I got it.
I'm sure I missed doing something maintenance wise or it should have been
replaced long ago but here we are.

I'm wondering where is a good place/person to take this to for repair and
any ideas on the cost?
Almost everything looks to be in OK condition except the cable/hose and
there is some sort of block or seizure as I cannot turn the motor by hand or
by wheel (actually most of the damage was me trying to turn the wheel and
thinking it was really stiff before I went back and looked).

I'm grateful for any and all help

Pictures below:

 

[wildthing]

cable steer

new one that's fried.

unbolt from your wheel and where it attches to the hyd/engine

measure the length and you'll know what size to order

take a pic of both ends so you know and the parts guy ordering knows


your off the water for a few days but its a diy that you can do with a few tools

 

[Clint r]

Had the same issue with my old K&C. The only real fix is a new cable. I put down some towels to catch any over spray and went to town on it with a can of WD-40. Managed to free it up and wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape. Got another season out of it but that's my boat. There's a very real risk of the inside cable pushing through the outer wire wrap. Especially under full throttle conditions.

 

[SeaWolf]

First off, I have no experience with Hydraulic Steering, but that looks like Cable Steering to me. Your cable is seized inside the sheath and needs to be replaced. Disconnect at the motor the connector arm, then on the other side the large nut that attaches the cable to the motor. Now the tricky part, you may or may not have enough room in your transom to punch the seized cable out. It is only so flexible and space is limited, so you may have to hacksaw the cable before it attaches to the motor. Hopefully there is no corrosion in the tilt tube (the part on your motor the cable slides through) and the cable will slide out. I`m guessing that a new cable is about $200 or so. I had the same problem years ago with Merc, but the steering is all the same. At the Steering Wheel, the Cable attaches to the steering box behind the wheel, I cannot remember exactly how but it was pretty straightforward, similar to how it attaches to the motor. Google Teleflex Steering Cable and find one the same length.

What makes you think it is Hydraulic?

 

[Aridhol]

First off, I have no experience with Hydraulic Steering, but that looks like Cable Steering to me. Your cable is seized inside the sheath and needs to be replaced. Disconnect at the motor the connector arm, then on the other side the large nut that attaches the cable to the motor. Now the tricky part, you may or may not have enough room in your transom to punch the seized cable out. It is only so flexible and space is limited, so you may have to hacksaw the cable before it attaches to the motor. Hopefully there is no corrosion in the tilt tube (the part on your motor the cable slides through) and the cable will slide out. I`m guessing that a new cable is about $200 or so. I had the same problem years ago with Merc, but the steering is all the same. At the Steering Wheel, the Cable attaches to the steering box behind the wheel, I cannot remember exactly how but it was pretty straightforward, similar to how it attaches to the motor. Google Teleflex Steering Cable and find one the same length.

What makes you think it is Hydraulic?

Just my ignorance!
Sorry I don't have a lot of experience with this stuff and when I was a kid we had a boat with cable steering that was a bare steel wire that wound around the steering wheel and had pulleys etc... so in my mind that was cable steering and everything else was hydraulic. I appreciate the reply and the education. Glad to have people like you and Clint and wildthing to help out

$200-300 is what I hoped so that's great to hear.

 

[jeffywestcoast]

I just replaced the cable, helm and wheel on my boat as it was cheaper then replacing the cable.. HC in Nanaimo you can by a whole new ro-tech planetary helm, cable&wheel for under 200 bucks...they are an absolute ***** to change...first thing to do is get the old one out...judging by the look of it i think that will be tricky... Good luck , if you can find a drillbit the same size as the tilt tube be sure to drill it out from each side to get rid of all the corrosion inside...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sly_karma]

The teleflex cable and helm are easy to install. As others have said, the fun part is getting the old end out of the outboards's tilt tube.

Still baffled by Tapatalk

 

[profisher]

Seems like removing the cable from the outboard to clean the tube and lube it should be an annual spring maintenance item. Would only take a few minutes and prevents a big job when you likely would rather be fishing!

 

[Aridhol]

edit: double post.

 

[Aridhol]

I got the old cable out by chopping it off right near the nut and cutting out the frayed part. I had to loop a screwdriver through the eye on the port side and reef on it to pull it out, it was a huge pain. Afterwards I cleaned out the tilt tube as best I could and greased it up. I had to widen an already existing hold in the side to get the new cable to slide in but overall it was not a terrible ordeal. Truthfully the most annoying part was taking the wheel off, almost broke my nose ripping it out, it was stuck on there for the last 30 years

The best part of all of this is my neighbour switched his boat to hydraulic a couple years ago and had the right length steering cable that he gave to me for free! I'll be getting him a couple cases of beer for the generosity

Thanks again to everyone for the replies, it might have been obvious I had no idea what I was doing hah.

next up, need to find an upholstery guy who also works for beers.

 

[Aridhol]

edit: something up with my posting tonight, it's double posting.

 

[Aridhol]

Seems like removing the cable from the outboard to clean the tube and lube it should be an annual spring maintenance item. Would only take a few minutes and prevents a big job when you likely would rather be fishing!

I agree, I'll be doing this from now on, especially since I've already got some rust/grime in mine to combat.

 

[wolf]

Damn wished I read this prior to you fixing it I would have also suggested drilling and tapping into the tube about 4 inches from the end and setting in grease nipples thats what i did on my old outboard system then used heavy gear oil and squirted it in every month or so the tube never seized after that...