tight steering
howdy all
the steering on my boat is pretty tight,the helm and morse cable have been replaced recently.when i take off the link arm the the steering is great. the problem i have is that i cant turn the motor by itself without struggling, i have greased up the 3 grease nipples that i can see on my mariner motor it became a bit easier to turn by hand, but about 5 minuets later it is tight again any suggestions as to what i can do next to free it up permanantly. i would think you should be able to move your motor manually with ease by hand.
cheers
dakka
"If we all fish for the future now there will be fish in the future"
reef-raider
Posts: 65
Date Joined: 04/10/10
i sounds like
the steering is getting stuck inside the tilt tube. those nipples your talking about only grease the tilt on your motor. you need to remove the steering cable/rod from inside the tilt tube and give the tube a real good clean out, it sounds like yours will come out relativly easy if you can still get the steering moving. buy some carby cleaner and a bottle brush and clean out trying to remove any rust and old grease then when you slide it back in make sure you lube it with a quality marine grade grease.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDhixZqS66A&feature=related
this might help, ive seen a better one that i watched when the same thing happend to me not that long ago but cant seem to find it now.
i bought this stuff from bunnings that releases rust in 30sec, i thought yeah right at the time but spent the $30 on it as my steering was badly siezed and the stuff is awesome it really worked and cleaned out the tilt tube even better then the carby cleaner. if you need to know what it is, i have the can still out by the boat.
im not so sure about the lithium grease as the guy says to use in this video as it drys out. im not a mechanic just a humble carpenter someone else might be able to shed some more light on this for us.
also your supposed to giving the steering a few turns every week when your not using it just to keep it free.
stilly
Posts: 341
Date Joined: 10/08/09
pivot tube
heat your pivot tube up on your motor and start pumpimg grease or better still oil and keep turning side to side, eventually it will free up
strike_zone
Posts: 403
Date Joined: 09/09/10
dont use grease
grease is the reason most steering systems sieze up always use oil on your steering rod and make sure you store it in the fully out position not inside the steering tube and yes give it a few turns each week and you will have nice free steering for a lot longer
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17871
Date Joined: 11/03/08
is your steering hydraulic
is your steering hydraulic or cable. if cable it might be worth going hydraulic.
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Andy
Posts: 522
Date Joined: 08/10/05
Remove the link arm you will
Remove the link arm you will need to heat the swivel tube and pump grease into the nipples. you may need to install another grease nipple as i think they only have 1 at the top of the swivel tube.