Tight steering on Mercruiser v8 Alpha with power assist

Hi Guys

Last summer I got involved with a boat that had its transom drain plug left out and the engine compartment flooded with salt water up to the valve covers. I was able to get to it in time and pretty much saved it. After replacing numerous parts and replacing some wiring as well as removing the drive and drying out the u joints as well as the gimbal bearing, I had it back out on the water and all seemed good. It was winterized and put back into the water this June and now the steering is very tight. There was evidence of water in the p/s reservoir but the level was ok. I changed the fluid several times. The boat is 15 yrs old and I suspect the steering cable is binding. When you start the motor the steering gets a tiny bit easier. What I am wondering is if a brief flooding of the engine compartment may be behind this problem. If so, what should I be looking for? Someone close to the owner mentioned that the actuator may be faulty but I don't see where a brief submersion in salt water could have damaged it. Any input would be greatly appreciated.


Thank You
Jon Allen

wnere the cable passes thru the guide tube or guide housing there is corrosion.

Bt Doctur said:

wnere the cable passes thru the guide tube or guide housing there is corrosion.

Click to expand...

Thanks BT

I was kind of thinking the same thing but wanted to hear from a pro.
Just out of curiosity what do you recommend for grease on the cable and in the tube?


Thanks Again
Jon Allen

Disconnect the steering cable at the steering arm at the transom (clevis pin and cotter pin). with motor not running try steering it and see if resistance is the same.

If so then unscrew the cable from the power assist assembly (locking bracket and large nut) and try again.

If cable resistance is the same then cable is bad.

Hi Jack

Thanks for the input as always. I do have a question. If the steering is still tight with the clevis pin out, doesn't that confirm that the cable and or helm is bad? Why bother loosening the cable nut at the actuator?


Thanks Again
Jon Allen

because with that nut loose the inner core will slide freely but the part in the tube is still tight
see 6A-12 in here http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Servmanl/6/6A6R3.PDF

Step 1 tells you if the tight steering is at the outdrive. (clevis pin removal)
If out drive moves freely and cable still stiff, remove cable nut and pull cable as far out of assist as possible. Hopefuly all the way. Then if cable is still tight its the cable if not its the assist...

Kind of what i already said....

Hi KG and Jack

Thanks for setting me straight on the diagnostic procedure. I wasn't taking a poss. bad assist unit into consideration. Forgot my thinking cap ... Any thoughts on Cable Buddy's?


Thank You

Jon

I know this is an old thread, but the shoe fits, so I thought I’d ask a few questions here and see if I can get some help with my situation.

my steering locked up completely. One day it worked fine, next time I launched the boat it was locked up. I found a video on you tube that shows the exact actuator and assembly I have. I’ve got a 1990 Bluewater 4.3 V6 with power assist steering.

first thing I did was remove the clevis pin from the cable end and checked the movement of the outdrive with the power assist ram still connected. I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and see if the power assist ram was still moving freely, as well as the pivot bearings in the out drive. This outdrive moves smoothly from side to side with the power assist ram still connected, but the steering wheel is still pretty much locked up.

I believe that due to zero lubricants found on the cable end where it comes out of the sleeve, and that this has frozen up inside the sleeve. I’m going to remove the nut from the starboard side of the sleeve mount and see if the cable moves. This is the video I found and was considering using this method to try and break it loose. Any suggestions would be appreciated….. Kirk
https://youtu.be/uuA3tqlOfpw

Seems to me that a new steering cable is in order.

o2batsea said:

Seems to me that a new steering cable is in order.

Click to expand...

Well i'm going to see how things clean up before ordering new parts. Does a new cable come with a new guide sleeve on this set up? Kirk

No
The steering cable end fits thru the sleeve.
If the sleeve is where your issue is you need to try to service that and free up the cable. It may require a little dead blow hammering but be careful.

Remove LARGE nut that secures cable to power assist assembly first and try to pull cable out. This may require the use of the dead blow hammer to get it to move....Also use some lubricant if you can get it in there....

If you damage the Cable end which is about 12 inches or longer (solid material) you will have to replace the entire cable

kghost said:

No
The steering cable end fits thru the sleeve.
If the sleeve is where your issue is you need to try to service that and free up the cable. It may require a little dead blow hammering but be careful.

Remove LARGE nut that secures cable to power assist assembly first and try to pull cable out. This may require the use of the dead blow hammer to get it to move....Also use some lubricant if you can get it in there....

If you damage the Cable end which is about 12 inches or longer (solid material) you will have to replace the entire cable

Click to expand...

In the video that i posted, the guy took the sleeve out completely and bored it out with a stainless steel brush. Are you saying to try and leave that sleeve in place and pull the cable through it one it is broken loose?

If that could be done and still get a brush though the sleeve to clean that up, it would save a step of trying to remove it. Kirk

If you can remove the sleeve once you get the cable out of it, then by all means clean it with what ever works best for you.

Just dont ruin the sleeve.

Grease it up real good with Mercruuiser 2-4-C grease when reassembling

kghost said:

If you can remove the sleeve once you get the cable out of it, then by all means clean it with what ever works best for you.

Just dont ruin the sleeve.

Grease it up real good with Mercruuiser 2-4-C grease when reassembling

Click to expand...

Does the cable itself need to be serviced if it's stiff and doesn't move smoothly? Can that cable be pulled out of the casing running to the steering wheel and cleaned and lubricated?

This has a rack style steering mechanism, and i haven't a clue how to disconnect the cable from that end. Kirk

Most steering cables are not servicable (you cant lubricate them)
They get replaced.

With a rack system, the rack is part of the cable assembly.
It is attached to cable as manufactured.

So if you get the cable end out of the sleve and the cable works fine then rework sleve and reassemble and you should be ok.

If the cable is stiff and difficult to move with the steering wheel when out of the sleeve then the cable should/may need to be replaced.

Steering cable replacement is common for many smaller pleasure boats.
I am sure many here like myself have replaced hundreds!

Thanks for sharing that..... For now i'm going to work on breaking that cable loose from the sleeve and see how it goes.

This boat is a 1990 vintage that was well taken care of until the last owner had it. But it was quite obviously neglected in the maintenance dept when i picked it up about 18 months ago. I've put a lot of TLC and elbow grease into this thing, and a certain amount of money. but my wife loves it and we have a lot of hours of fishing in this baby now, and a few summer trips with our kids to the lake too. I knew what i was getting into buying an older boat. I rather enjoy tinkering with it, but some jobs are easier than others. Some of the major mechanics needed , i use a good boat mechanic. Sometimes I know where to draw the line. Other times i get in over my head. Kirk

Here’s an update on my progress. I pulled the large nut on the starboard side of the boat attaching the cable to the sleeve, and the steering wheel moved freely with little resistance. This was fairly easy to get to and didn’t take long.

Getting the cable broke loose from the sleeve was a test in patience, and not easy to work on behind the motor at all. There wasn’t enough room to swing a dead blow hard enough to even budge it, so I used a large drift punch through the clevis hole in the end of the cable, and a pair of vise grips on the sleeve and turned the cable a quarter turn to unfreeze it. But…. It was still seriously froze up. Not being able to get a hammer in there gave me an idea……

I was able to angle the end of the sleeve slightly upward, and used penetrating oil on the cable liberally, and let it set for a day. Then I worked it back and forth a bit more the next day and used more oil. Day two it moved quite a bit easier and the penetrating oil seemed to be flowing into the sleeve a bit more. So I let it set another day.

Day 3 I came up with an idea…… I have a pneumatic palm nailer that I’ve used to drive nails in very tight places in the past. So I got that out and found I could get it in there ok. So what I did was put the clevis pin back in the hole in the cable in so as not to damage it, and used this palm nailer on the end of the cable. BINGO! I not only broke it loose , I was able to move it several inches. It didn’t take to long at all to get that cable moving completely free after that with more lubrication.

At this point I seriously thought about just using the 2-4-C grease and putting it back together, but thought it might be better to pull the sleeve out and get that cleaned out really well. But now I’m thinking I wish I’d tried pulling the cable out and cleaning it without removing it. Using vice grips and a pair of channel lock pliers, it was a brutally slow process and fought me all the way. Leaving the cable in place insured that I didn’t damage the sleeve, but there is over two inches of thread on that sleeve. After an hour of wrenching on it, and 4 bandaids later I still haven’t got it completely out. So I hosed it down with blaster oil again and called it a day.

I’m quite sure I’ll get it finished up today and reassembled, but I wouldn’t recommend this procedure as an entertaining tinkering project.
this was a stone bitch every inch of the way to pull off….. but on a positive note…. Even you pro’s might appreciate how well that palm nailer worked for breaking that cable loose…. Here is a photo of the unit. Kirk
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Uzze2ghD7L2YGyFy6

The cable housing is lined with a slippery plastic like teflon, so binding of the inner cable is probably from some kind of corrosion I should think. If that's the case I would just replace the cable even tho it's working now.

The cable itself is smooth as silk, and the steering is easy without the cable hooked up. it was binding up in the cable sleeve. That’s why I want to remove the sleeve completely and polish it up with a stainless steel brush. I probably could have removed the cable and ran a brush through it without removing the sleeve, but looking at the finished product wouldn’t be possible. Changing that steering cable would be a chore I’d rather not tackle if it’s still working fine. Kirk

Well this was a brutal adventure for these old hands of mine. It was a 4 band-aid job for sure.
The cable itself is in excellent condition and moves smoothly in its teflon casing running to the helm. And even the cable end that runs through the sleeve attached to the actuator was in pretty good shape. I was actually surprised it wasn't pitted or even rusty at all.

Getting the cable unfroze from that sleeve was a test in patience. After two day of turning it a bit here and there, and adding penetrating oil, it still was stuck pretty good in there. I tried tapping on it with a dead blow but there isn't a lot of room in there to swing a hammer. What i ended up using was a pneumatic palm nailer. THAT moved it just great! I just put the clevis pin in the end of the cable so i didn't deform the cable end. For tight quarters, i'd highly recommend this tool/



After getting the cable broke free, i tried to remove that sleeve from the actuator so i could clean it up good and it was really tough to turn with vise grips and channel locks. I managed to get it unscrewed about 1.5" before i gave up on it last night. I was just doing too much damage to the outside of the sleeve. I did leave the cable inside the sleeve while i worked on it so as not to crush the sleeve, or bend it out of shape. But at a 1/4" per turn it took an hour last night before it just wouldn't budge anymore. This morning i screwed it back in place with almost the same amount of effort. (I used a glove this time to save on band aids. I was really surprised how stiff the treads were after penetrating oil and wd-40 trying to go back the other direction. But the last 1/2" of thread went easier ....

Once i got that sleeve back in place, i pulled the cable out without too much effort. I cleaned the cable end up with 600 grit emery cloth, and then ran a stainless steel brush through the sleeve with a drill motor to polish that up. Once that was done i ran some patches through the sleeve like cleaning a shot gun, then applied some 2-4-C marine grease on a patch to lube it up good. After greasing the cable up good i reassembled it. I also lubed up the clevis pens where it attached to the outdrive steering arm. That WAS a bit rusty.

Bottom line is she steers like a brand new one again. Actually it's a lot smoother than it ever was. Amazing what a little lubrication will do. I'm a happy guy! But i wouldn't recommend this repair project to a novice mechanic. it was brutal.

I wonder how often a guy should service that cable end to avoid it drying up again? This 2-4-C is pretty good grease.

​



Kirk

I recently replaced the old leaky Bendix steering actuator on my OMC Cobra with a good used unit & got the parts to rebuild the old unit. I think that Merc used the same Bendix unit up to 1990 or so. My problem was not stiff steering rather a small leak suddenly turned into a BIG one.
Anyway what I did every year was turn the helm to one side to fully expose the cable and greased it every year (owned since 2002). When I disconnected the cable at the clevis to do this job the cable moved like new and this is the original 1988 cable! So regular greasing really helps. When I installed the new(used) actuator I filled the cable guide tube with grease and also greased the pins for the steering arm and the cable. These old style actuators also have a grease fitting but it’s important not to over grease them, just like 3 pumps is enough; there is a ball stud inside that needs lubrication. Same style unit as GM used on Corvettes up to ‘83 and Ford used on many of their unibody cars like the Mustangs; this is why repair parts are still available.

So do as I did, turn the helm to expose the cable and grease it and the pins for the cable & steering arm each season. Also it you have any water leaks at the transom esp at the steering arm they really should be fixed because that will contribute to stiff steering.

Thanks for the info Louc. I am definitely adding that steering cable grease to my regular maintenance list. Fortunately I’m leak free at the moment, but it wasn’t when I bought it….. I had a tear in one of the bellows that only leaked when it was turned hard over to one side. When I took it in to have the outdrive serviced, they replaced the lower shift cable, gimble bearings, and put all new bellows in it. If it isn’t raining, that bilge stays unbelievably dry. Oil leaks are very minimal too, as well as power steering.

I’ve got in the habit of cleaning the bilge out real good in that engine well on a regular basis. It just doesn’t take a. Lot of extra effort to do really. Doing it makes it a lot easier to spot a problem when it occurs if everything is clean and dry.

one of the best things I added was an EZ drain plug valve to the oil pan. I just plug a 3/8” hose to it and drain the oil right out the plug hole in the stern. Takes all the fight and mess out of changing oil, and I do that twice a year. We put a lot of hours on this old girl fishing, crabbing, and summertime activities in the lakes too.

Kirk

Sounds good! I use a Topsider pump with a garden hose adapter that works great, just did my oil change and winterization today in fact.