Mini Steering Wheel Identification

[the fog ducker]

Fellas

Wallllahh!


Done

, love it , catch sum rays now lol , smooooooth ,
thx for ur help boys
time to go bloody er up , talk soon

fd

 

[wolf]

Make sure you grease up the knob where it spins as it will seize up. what i did was put it on the lathe and used a flat drill and drilled the shaft down a bit more about a 1/4 if an inch so a nylon washer could fit between the wheel and the knob. You could probably use a drill press as well. then I used a good marine grease on it no more squeak or seize make sure you grease it all up even where the bolt goes in I filled that up as well. the thing will seize for sure (trust me on this one) had to use the torch to loosed mine. very simple thing to do to make it sooooo much better you will really enjoy it it will take a bit to get use to the steering 3 days and you will have it down pat LOL LOL

Good luck Wolf

 

[the fog ducker]

ahead of you Wolf

replaced the stock bolt with a stainless one , as well as the nut for the helm shaft ,
used it all weekend , one word

AWESOME...

thx again

cheers

Felix

 

[Gunsmith]

Ha! Next thing you know everybody will be out there playing with their knobs! Really neat set-up FD , wish I had done mine that way.

 

[the fog ducker]

haha

nothing like getting ur knob polished ,

dont thank me , thank the forum boys for the info , i ju$t paid$ for it$

put my marine bar stool in the corner , out in the sun steering n sleighing for 4 days , lifes good : )


cheers

fd

 

[wolf]

Glad it worked out for you FD takes a bit to learn the steering but easy after a bit,the smaller wheel you can move pretty fast with that knob on it, good on you for doing the changes good work!!!!!

Wolf

 

[Rockfish]

Fog Ducker - I have the same setup on my boat (since Roy installed it). It is a great setup, however, there are a couple of things I have learned which you may eventually find useful. My impression is that the helm is essentially designed to be mounted horizontally not vertically as it is on the transom. It is not a problem if maintained well and protected as much as possible to prevent moisture getting into the unit through what is now the top and causing a little corrosion on the shaft, leading to roughness causing wear on the upper shaft seal which then causes hydraulic fluid to leak up out of the helm.

Even if moisture does not get into the unit, the upper shaft seal may eventually fail from general wear and have to be replaced. This is what happened with the one on my boat and we recently replaced the upper shaft seal. It is simple to do, especially if you keep the upper shaft lubed by removing the wheel periodically and using some good quality marine grease on the shaft so that the wheel does not get stuck. I suspect the grease also helps prevent moisture from getting to the shaft.

In our case the wheel was very stuck to the shaft and the only way to get it off without damaging the unit after removing the top nut is with penetrating oil and a very large gear puller. The gear puller provides equal upward force on the wheel and downward force on the shaft. The last thing I suspect you want to do is try hammering on the underside of the wheel as this will only cause damage to the seals or the unit in general. In our case there was a noticeable bang when the gear puller finally caused the wheel to break free from the shaft.

The rest is simple - three screws on a cover plate. Remove the little pressure fitting key from the shaft remove the top seal and replace it (very simple), Put back the cover plate and replace the key and don’t forget to grease up the key and the shaft so that neither the key or wheel get stuck to the shaft in the future. Problem solved – no more leak.

One last thing and luckily I was warned about this before doing something stupid. Both helms will likely have a filler plug on the side of them for putting in/checking/topping up the hydraulic fluid. However on your main helm the plug will be on top because it is mounted horizontally but on the transom helm the filler plug is on the side. Further on my boat the transom helm is mounted much lower than the main helm and that is likely true of your boat also.

I was advised never to remove the plug on the transom helm and charge the system with hydraulic fluid only through the higher plug on the main helm and also check and top up the hydraulic fluid if necessary only through the higher main helm. I was told that if you open the plug on the transom helm when there is fluid in the system, gravity and/or hydraulic pressure will force much of the fluid to drain out at the lower transom helm creating a mess. I have never had a reason to remove the transom helm filler plug so I am not sure what will happen, but why do it.

 

[the fog ducker]

thx , greased the $hit outta the shaft , repaced the nut withh a ss one , put a small bucket over the whole wheel while not in use ,
will pull it off in the off season for a quick polish n greesing,, have a wheel puller if needed ,

i was aware of the the lower fill cap needing to be changed to a plug , it came with the kit , was in the instructions as well ,

maitanance maitanance maitanance..

thx for the heads up..

fd

 

[wolf]

Well yeah the seal will go look at how much that thing gets used in one day.... a ficken whack back and forth and back and forth in just a 8 hour day I dont think it matters if its up sideways . a seal is a seal it just plain wears out....so if it lasts 2 to 3 yrs Im thinking its lived its life...and yes your right a gear puller is the only thing to use on all steering systems..

Wolf

 

[Rockfish]

You may be right Wolf. Some of the shaft corrosion information came from the retailer who sold me the replacement seal (not expensive) and advised on the installation instructions. In this case when we replaced the seal on the vertical helm we did not notice any corrosion where the upper seal goes on the shaft.

Overall, I love this system but will keep the shaft greased up in the future to ease wheel removal and protect it from possible corrosion problems The custom canvas top with the helm pocket also protects the rear helm from weather when moored or on land storage.

When playing fish, need to do a quick course change, working the gear or just wanting to get some sun and be close to the rods, the transom helm is indispensible, especially on a boat with a pod, remote steering and no kicker tiller.