Steering Issue Help

The last 2 trips to the river, the steering is getting tighter and harder to turn. Has anyone encoutered this. It is a '03 X-9. No power steering. I can barely turn the rudder with my hands it is so stiff. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Steering cable. I replaced the cable on my 04 centurion at the beginning of the season because of the same symptom. should be about $200.00 for the cable.

Thanks Brian. How difficult was the replacement?

Took me about 45 minutes. I tied a piece of poly twine to the end of the cable that attaches to the rudder and pulled the cable through towards the steering wheel. when i got it out i tied the twine back to the the new cable and pulled it back through with the twine. fairly simple process. just take your time.

Do it now! If its that stiff there is a pretty good chance it is ready to break and then you will have no steering!

Here is a great link.

I ordered mine from Iboats.com, they had the best price and quickest delivery.

http://www.stewboy.com/english/replace.html

I took me a little over an hour, but I could do it much faster next time. The only difficult part might be accessing the rudder. It is pretty easy on a direct drive, but might be difficult on a v-drive.

My buddy waited to long to replace his and it broke, thankfully we had a full cooler and all day to paddle back to the launch.

They are correct. I have an 01 209 which is the same as your X-9. That cable has a tough route from under the dash to the floor and when you get near the back it is pretty tight. I think I paid $130 for the cable from Mastercraft....but it was a while ago. Brian has the right idea, although we just connected the new cable to the old cable which I think is a better idea.

I bought my replacement steering cable at west marine (I didn't want to wait for shipping):
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/26939/377%20710/0/steering%20cable/Primary%20Search/mode%20matchallpartial/0/0?N=377%20710&Ne=0&Ntt=steering%20cable&Ntk=Primar y%20Search&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial&Nao=0&Ns=0&k eyword=steering%20cable&isLTokenURL=true&storeNum= 6&subdeptNum=222&classNum=693

Thanks guys. I picked up the cable from west marine and will install it this weekend.

If you do not have rack and pinion steering, you can just pull the cable through like phatboy said,
but if your cable has a rack on one end, it will not fit through and you have to attach the string to the rudder end, pull the cable towards the bow, and then pull the new cable back to the stern.