How to change a steering cable.

[BCRider]

Just finished replacing the cable in my 09 22ve. The OEM and replacement one I installed was a 19' SSC15419 . I made the mistake of ordering an 18' based on what the 06-08 I ready had used. An 18' is short by 6". I missed one possible trip I could have gotten out last week but I was otherwise able to quickly make the exchange and get it swapped out.

Couple things to note:
-In an 09 and I will guess til 12 or 13 whenever the 22VE's ended you DO NOT need to cut the existing cable. This was my first mistake and what crippled me once I found out I had the wrong cable.
-The 1 1/8" nut at the rear under the motor was impossible to loosen under the motor. If you have a large wrench there is no swing room either.
-I loosened off the rudder bracket so I could slide the whole sleeve out and removed the 1 1/8" nut on my bench.
-When you pull the existing one out tie on a rope as others have said to pull the new one back through with.
-I have very limited access at the rear even with the back and side panels removed. The fuel filter is right in the way and I have three batteries at the back so it made it nearly impossible to get two hands on anything. I had a second set of hands to put it all back together and it made life a lot easier.
-Again, as someone else mentioned. Make sure you have the rudder straight and steering wheel straight before you install the rack under the helm. That being said I still noticed out on water that if I had the steering wheel dead straight I was turning right. I'll have to fine tune that.
-If I hadn't first ordered the wrong cable and had a second set of hands the whole time I probably could have swapped out the cable in 2 all said and done. It really isn't that hard of a process. I probably spent just as much time putting all of my gear back in the front helm locker and putting the panels back in and such.
-I went from stiff 2 handed turning to single finger turning. I was actually a drunk driver on the water for a bit as I wasn't used to the steering being so loose.

05/14/18 Update: For those considering upgrading you sub stock WS free air at some point you may want to consider a 20' or 21' so you have some extra length for routing.

[IDBoating]

Great idea! I've often wondered why they don't put a zerk fitting on the ends of those cables. Ten seconds with a grease gun and those cables would probably last forever. Zerks aren't exactly a new nor expensive technology....

[malmz]

Here is a better picture I had from before of the support tube and support tube seal in place. This is taken from the rear of the boat.
seal.jpg

[malmz]

I just did my 2006 24v cable and have some thoughts on making the cables last longer. Water getting into the cable has to be primary cause of seized or stiff cables. The improved Xtreme cable is hopefully a better design and should help too. Putting the cable over the tank does not hurt, but water isn't going into the cable anywhere but in the end.

When I pulled my cable from the support tube, I could tell the 10 year old seal on the rudder side of the support tube was degrading. See Lee's picture of the seal on his cable below, it is not in place, it should be over the end of the support tube opposite the threaded nut. So I tried to purchase the part alone, but noticed nobody sells it off the shelf without the whole support tube, it was only a "special order" item. From there I contacted Teleflex, and they said it is only a special order item as well that I would have to order through a dealer, not direct, and that they only sell a couple a year. That seemed odd to me as this is a rubber part that will degrade.
TillerArmBolt.jpg
Asking about cable life and water ingress, Teleflex also told me that the support tube must be cleaned and repacked with marine grease no less than 2 times a season for the cables to last as the grease acts as a barrier to keep the water away from the nutted end of the cable. Well, that is a bit of a pain given the location of the support tube under the motor where you can get to it with one hand at a time, and in my case I have a 50 gallon ballast tank in each back locker, one which needs to be pulled to get in the locker.

To regress, I bought this boat two and a half years ago and the dealer installed a new cable at the time. When I removed the near seized cable last month, there was absolutely no grease in the support tube, bone dry, thank you selling dealer. My last boat was also an in inboard, straight drive, and I had the same cable for 21 years.

So I started poking around for secondary seals and came across the Seachoice boot that is made for these cables but most commonly used on outboard applications on pivot tubes in salt water conditions. They are cheap and worth a test. My concern though was that there was no air relief on the boot, so that when the cable went in and out, it would either collapse or suck air or random water in the hull into the boot. Needless to say, you do not want grease packed into this accordion boot, only air, and it is best if that air moves freely in and out of it. So I made a small hole in the boot and added a small brass tube insert from the inside out (flared end is inside the boot) and put it in place with shoe goo (thank you son who skateboards, basically it is just really sticky rubber glue) and let it dry overnight.
tigerubber1.jpgtigerubber2.jpg
I added a clear breather tube as pictured.
tigerubber3.jpg
Now the bad news is I don't have pictures of it in the boat, and the boat is 350 miles away. Essentially, I packed the tube with marine grease as it should be. With the standard Teleflex seal in hand, we stretched the large end of this boot over the seal. From there, the boot/seal combination went onto the end of the steering cable and onto the support tube. The boot had to be held collapsed and the steering rod extended to reconnect it to the tiller. The clear tube goes up the side of the motor, away from anything moving or hot, and draws dry air.

The boat has a day on it with this setup so far. If the boot holds up, it will keep absolutely all moisture out of the support tube, and away from the end of the cable, solving the issue. The boot is a bit long, so it does get pushed a bit when the steering is turned all the way to the right. Slightly shorter bellows would be perfect if another boot can be found with the same size ends. The bad news is Teleflex will sell less cables, and there is no way I am crawling down there more than once a year.

I hope this helps.

Added Note: it is important to keep the original support tube seal in place to hold as much grease as possible into the support tube, and keep that out of the bellows. Thus pulling the large end of the boot over the stock support tube seal.

[zenxteninc]

2012 rz2 very much a PITA.

The entire boat was assembled around the cable. There was absolutely no way to route the cable through the same opening. The cable was tight to ballast and heater hoses. The rod would not make the turn and hit the gas tank. The gas tank could not be moved due to ballast pumps. Had to cut a new slot with a sonicrafter in the floor at the helm to drop the rod through the floor above the gas tank.

Took a 20' cable. I got the extreme one. Ssc15420. One pinky turns the wheel now. Was completely seized before.

The one thing I did different at the rudder was I removed the black box from the bracket by loosening 1 bolt and the rudder link. Then I pulled up the entire assembly in front of the vdrive. This made it way easier to get the 1-1/8 nut off.

my boat was a beast.. 2001 21v fox riders edition with how water shower and heater.. The heater lines were the headache the pulling back through got bound up on those and yeah the party started.. anyway I pulled those lines out and then pulled the steering cable through over tank and then ran heater hoses under tank.. good for now I guess hope I do not need to do this for a loooong time....

[JTs-rz2]

2012 rz2 very much a PITA.

The entire boat was assembled around the cable. There was absolutely no way to route the cable through the same opening. The cable was tight to ballast and heater hoses. The rod would not make the turn and hit the gas tank. The gas tank could not be moved due to ballast pumps. Had to cut a new slot with a sonicrafter in the floor at the helm to drop the rod through the floor above the gas tank.

Took a 20' cable. I got the extreme one. Ssc15420. One pinky turns the wheel now. Was completely seized before.

The one thing I did different at the rudder was I removed the black box from the bracket by loosening 1 bolt and the rudder link. Then I pulled up the entire assembly in front of the vdrive. This made it way easier to get the 1-1/8 nut off.

[dani.d.duke]

You tube video on how to r&r steering cable


https://youtu.be/Zk9V6qoCiIA



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[edtige]

I just did this cable swap. 2002 21V with a 13417 from factory. I bought it new 14 years ago. The OEM cable lasted 14 years. The dealer didn't have 17' so I installed 19' because it's what they had. Removing the cable was exactly as described in this thread. I used a bolt cutter on the cable after I slid it towards the fuel tank and snipped it in the open. I removed many hoses to get to the 1 1/8 nut. I used crescent wrench. Installing the cable was troublesome. I first tried to thread it on the port side (top of tank), but it won't fit. The fuel exhaust valve gets in the way. Once I switched it to the starboard side, it went fast. I kept tension on the cable being fed. The top was too narrow. I did it on the side of the tank. I verified correct direction on the driveway. The OEM cable is extremely smooth even though it was 2' longer than needed. I centered it pretty good.

[Pidcack]

Just swapped out my steering cable with a new teleflex ssc15418 on my 08 22Ve. All i can say is best time and money spent today. No longer the muscle man fight to turn. As previously mentioned, LIKE BUTTA.

[lee]

White stuff was oxidation. Good call on the antiseize.

[skiguy]

Just adding my experience to the body of knowledge. Last weekend, With a good friend I replaced the steering cable in my 05 22v. I went with the TFExtreme cable - 18 footer. The 1 1/8" nut on the end of the tube was immobile. We shifted our attention to the bolt that holds the tube assembly to the floor. Also immobile but I was able to hold a socket on the end of the bolt (from the stbd locker) while my friend stood with one foot in the port locker (facing forward) and placing his other foot on top of the ratchet handle and bearing down with his weight. This broke the bolt loose and we were able to remove the tube assembly as a whole and cut the cable. Which was not easy. Used a sawzall, tried a hacksaw - didn't work well and with a lot of twisting and work managed to cut the cable. My advice here is find some bolt cutters. That cable is tough! With the tube out we went to work on the 1 1/8" nut. Clamped it in a bench vise. What ultimately worked ( we sweated over this for about 20 mins) was my buddy providing counter torque with 2 pipe wrenches while I unscrewed the big nut. We found a white chalky substance in the threads. We think it may have been loctite seeing how much trouble we had. Found this same substance on the bolt that held the tube assembly too. Cleaned all threads with a wire brush, liberally applied some anti-seize to the threads before reassembling everything.

Pulling the cable from the helm was surprisingly easy. We had attached a slim rope to the old cut end before removing it and I simply tied it to the hole in the end of the new cable. My friend pushed and I pulled it easily over the gas tank with the rope and we tightened the big nut to the tube and fed the assembly underneath the engine to the rear of the boat and reattached. Took us about 2 1/2 hours.




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[IDBoating]

Yes, our boat came that way from Forte's in Florida. I have since learned that Forte's does that themselves, it didn't come that way from Tige. I don't know if Tige does it now or not.

What Forte's did was use stainless cable to run various connections down in the bilge. The rudder block (which is obviously connected to the steering cable) is one of the things so connected. I don't have a photo, sorry. But just imagine using ~18 gauge stainless cable with crimped ring connectors to run connections between the engine block and the other various metal objects in the bilge. A simple, elegant solution to preventing voltage differences and the resulting electrolysis.

[GzeroX5]

Within this thread there is mention of grounding the cable to the engine to prevent/minimize corrosion. Anyone do this? Where/how is this done? Pictures would be awesome! I'll be replacing my 2nd cable soon. Thanks!

[Thegerman618]

Yankees39-Replied to your other thread

[Yankees39]

Quick question on my 1999 2100v a few months ago I was turning the boat going about 20 mph and the steering slipped for a quick second. Now the steering wheel is out of alignment. Everything else is fine, it turns completely both directions but the steering wheel is side ways going straight. I am wondering if I need a new steering cable for this or if there is a way to correct the alignment. Also the steering it self is not hard to turn, well it doesn't take two hands but it also is not turn able with 1 finger when turning the boat for a 180 turn.