Ways to fix stiff steering...
 

I have a 1995 Sport Nautique and it has always had stiffer steering. But at the end of last year the steering got extremely stiff. Has anyone else had this problem and been able to fix it. It's almost dangerous how difficult it is to turn it. Thanks

I forgot to add, I always store it out of the water. I read from other forums saying to grease the zerks, I will try to find them tomorrow and grease them, but could it be anything else?

Most likely you need a new steering cable

Cables are not serviceable they are wear parts the zerk's on the rudder will do nothing to fix your problem they are intended to help lube the rudder shaft and to seal out water.Average cable life is 400 to 500 hours if none of your cables have ever been changed it is a good idea to do them all steering,trans and throttle

Ditto on the steering cable!

I had zerks on the steering cable of my 205 years ago. But grease is a preventative maintenance task. I think if it's that stiff now, your beyond fixing it with a little grease. Time to replace it.

After reading this post I was wondering how easy should it be to turn your boat? When pulling riders it takes me two hands to get my boat to turn? I always thought that was normal considering my cable seems nice and smooth when I turn it out of the water. So how much resistance should I have when turning?

A single finger in the steering wheel spoke should make the turn.

I have the same boat. Replaced mine about 3 years ago due to the same issues. It's pretty straight foward. Most difficult part is getting the old one out. Shouldn't take more than a few hours.

On most boats it depends on which way your turning. Look at your prop & rudder from the rear, notice the rudder is not in the center. It's off to counter the effect of your spinning prop.

If your boat has a prop that spins one way, then usually it's easy to turn right, a bit hard to turn left (due to the forces put on the face of the rudder by the prop).
Boats with props that spin the opposite direction will be reversed, harder to turn one direction, easier the other.

Regardless of which way your prop spins though, you should not need both hands to turn both ways.

I just replaced the 19'6" cable in my 211 with a 20' teleflex Xtreme cable. Now it turns with one finger. The extra 6" also allowed me to make a larger loop as it exits the helm so I expect it to stay easier than it was when my boat was new.

There are a BUNCH of posts out here on replacing the cables. I did mone two years ago- total pain in the ARSS but made a huge difference. a couple of tips- if your cable goes UNDER the gas tank like mine did- make sure to EMPTY the gas tank first ( like I didn't -lol) you may need to lift it out. Also, get a fish tape for snaking it back into place. I took my new one over the tank and it should stay out of any acccumulated water in the hull, hopefully extending it's life.

this is not a hard "do it yourself" project, just be patient. the shops wanted $ 500 + to do this and the cables are around $ 100 bucks.

Good luck.

make sure you get another person to help you with the removal and install of the cable... made life a whole lot easier for me!!


Its pretty easy to do.... disconnect the old cable.... cut the cable in half and attact a wire to the side that you will be pulling out towards the steering wheel.... throw the old cable away and attach the new cable to the wire you fished thru.... carefully fish the new cable thru and reattach... make sure of alignment and bolt the new cable down... bingo bango done!!

One of those posts was brought back to life today on Replacing Steering Cable thread!

Definitely the steering cable. I replaced mine last year because I had the same problems as you with really stiff steering. My boat turns like butter now.

I've done mine twice on a 97 Sport. Cut the old cable at the rack by the steering wheel and attach the rudder end of the new cable to it with Gorrila tape. Disconnect the old cable from the rudder and now use your old cable to pull your new cable through. Have 1 person push the cable and 1 person pull. Go easy so it does'nt hang up. A dealer told me how to do this and it works very well.....Mikeski could you give some more info on the 20' cable, I believe mine is 19' 6'' also. Thanks