Steering tube cleaning

Re: 1979 Evinrude 9.9 hp
I noticed (for a while now) that when I leave the motor untouched for a few days/weeks, the steering tube feels stuck when I try to steer it either direction. After forcing for the initial swivel, then it frees up and steers fine, but when running on the boat, I can tell that the steering is rough, I have to give it hard push or pulls to get it to go left or right. Not an issue at low speed but at full throttle I really feel like I need a smoother steering for little trajectory corrections.
I guess I need to clean the steering tube, and probably have to take it apart to do the job correctly.
Any one with experience and tips and the procedure?
Thanks!

Did you apply grease to the zerk on the steering tube? If not, try that first. If it's still stiff you'll have to dismantle, clean, and apply fresh grease.

kevinj said:

Did you apply grease to the zerk on the steering tube? If not, try that first. If it's still stiff you'll have to dismantle, clean, and apply fresh grease.

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Thanks Kevin, I will try that, and hopefully push whatever makes it stick out (wishful thinking lol)

Jupiter Dinghy said:

Thanks Kevin, I will try that, and hopefully push whatever makes it stick out (wishful thinking lol)

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It could just be dry from not having fresh grease in a long time. I'd say give it a few squirts, move full left to right motion, a few squirts, move......wash, rinse, repeat until you get grease coming out the top and bottom. Once that happens you should have smooth movement. If you don't, then it's time to tear down and inspect. I've never torn into a steering tube so I can't help you on that one.

Take it apart and clean it NOW or you will be sorry when it gets impossible. That is a regular maintenance item especially in salt water. Depending on the boat, you might have to lift the motor off the transom to get the cable out of the tube. If so, so be it. No big deal on a 9.9 anyway. There is a special wire brush for cleaning the tube out, which makes it a lot easier. marineengine probably has them.

Have to ask, did you back off the tension screw ?

fdrgator: To be clear, it is a tiller motor, there is no steering cable involved.
To take this apart does the power head need to come off?

racerone: Pardon my ignorance but I have no idea what tension screw you are referring to...?

Jupiter Dinghy said:

fdrgator: To be clear, it is a tiller motor, there is no steering cable involved.
To take this apart does the power head need to come off?

racerone: Pardon my ignorance but I have no idea what tension screw you are referring to...?

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Sorry, in your original post you kept referring to the steering tube, which led me to think you were running remote steering with a cable through the "steering tube". Yeah, I know, more correctly, that's a "tilt tube"

EDIT: Upon further consideration, I realize that motor doesn't even have a tilt tube. Sorry for all the misleading confusion.

fdrgator said:

Sorry, in your original post you kept referring to the steering tube, which led me to think you were running remote steering with a cable through the "steering tube". Yeah, I know, more correctly, that's a "tilt tube"

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No problem, I should have said "pivot tube".... (after checking the name of the part on the diagram)

Jupiter Dinghy said:

No problem, I should have said "pivot tube".... (after checking the name of the part on the diagram)

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It's all good. Terminology can definitely get confusing especially when some words are interchangeable.

I was going to take pictures of my 9.9 last night to show the locations of the grease zerks but didn't get a chance. If I recall correctly there should be zerks at the points where I've drawn red arrows. I'll look tonight to be certain. In Fdrgator's defense, these motors don't necessarily have a tilt tube, but they are lubricated in the same locations where the pivot tube attaches to the stern bracket.

Try greasing things first to see if it helps. If that doesn't solve the issue it will have to come apart. I've never done this, but from the diagram it sure looks like the powerhead, gear case and just about everything else will have to come off to make this happen.

Thanks Kevin, I will sure give the grease a chance before starting to think about how to dismantle the whole thing.....

Yep, an "improvement" over many other models. Not.