2019 Tige ZX1 Steering

[Aschool]

Was out for the 3rd time with the boat this weekend, absolutely in love. Towards the end of the day noticed steering left gave substantial stiffness, going right was a one finger smooth operation. Towards the end of the day, left almost felt like it was in full lock while barely turning and providing alot of resistance.

Naturally did a bunch of research last night and found steering cable/rudder as the two likely causes. Seems to be extremely common while going left. The boat is at the lake currently and I would like to arrive this weekend with the right tools. Access for greasing the rudder I'm imagining is through the removable locker panels under engine? Do these models have a zerk fitting? If anyone has a type of grease they find successful I'm all ears.

As for the cable, would it go bad in 2 seasons? It appears a dry bilge is extremely important to prevent water penetration, and being I wasn't there for the first 70 hrs I cant guarantee this, but the boats underfloor looked really good when I took the floor out this winter and did all the servicing. I've heard lubing the steering cable and rudder mentioned as annual maintenance and wondering if anyone had a brief explanation as to what lubing the steering cable entails. Turning all the way right greasing the shaft with marine grade grease (small hand held container) and then working it in by turning the wheel left? Repeating that a few times or should I have an aerosol type marine grade lubricant spray?

Any information anyone has on what their process is for success would be extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance, just like having a full gameplan attacking these items and cant see the boat at the moment.

[freeheel4life]

Do you have a smartwheel(soft touch buttons for volume and whatnot at the wheel)?? If so the easiest thing to do first is check that it isn't dragging. Do this by removing the 4 bolts that attach the rack to the back of the helm (7/16 socket on a ratchet/cordless driver). Once removed if the wheel turns freely its further downstream. Bolt the rack back up.

If above wasn't the cause now it gets fun. Disconnect the steering cable from the rudder tiller arm. (9/16 om one side and 5/8 on the other) and once disconnected turn the wheel. If its stiff its the cable.

If not stiff get out and turn the rudder back and forth by hand, or do it by manually pushing the tiller arm back and forth. If it's stiff its the rudder box.

[Aschool]

It does have the smart wheel, has this been becoming known for dragging, and by that I'm guessing you mean binding in some way?

One piece of information I've seen is to make sure that at full lock in both directions the rutter is even in degrees from center. I will then remove the cable and check for stiffness there. Seems like exposing the maximum amount of rod, cleaning and lubricating with a very thin high quality lithium grease is the plan.

From there if the rudder shows resistance, would this require a new rudder box? From what I've gathered it will have 2 zerk fittings that can be greased, with 1/2 pumps only from the grease gun to prevent adding resistance/over packing. I've purchased amsoil synthetic non petroleum based grease, manual calls for a food grade alternative....

I'm hoping in 80 hours and 2 seasons the cable hasn't taken a ****, but you never know! Under the helm removing the 4 bolts, is there anyway to lubricate that rack while its exposed? I'm assuming I need to get the rudder straight and steering wheel centered when re-attaching to keep the zero/center accurate after testing for the binding.

Thanks again, I appreciate the time and effort.

[freeheel4life]

Yes, the backer plate for the smartwheel comes loose and then starts to grind. Im guessing this isn't your issue as you can typically feel and hear it grinding. I mentioned it on because it's a very easy check and it eliminates a variable.

I can't remember if it was 19s or not(believe it was) but there was a run of boats that got a different rudder box than what Tige has always used. This new design was a bust and requires removal back to the tried and true. Complaints were similar to what you are describing so that's why I mentioned it.

Center rudder and wheel before putting it all back together indeed. You can try to put some lube on the rack but it comes packed with grease and the corrosion is always at the other end due to bilge water incursion heading back up the cable....so greasing rack in not necessary IMO

[Aschool]

The wheel moves equally free in both directions on the lift, which makes me think the wheel isn't the problem but definitely will not rule it out. That will be my first stop! Would you be willing to PM me for an email address and possibly lend your smart wheel disassembly incase I end up going that route?

I will definitely be spending some time checking for play on the rudder and see how freely it moves. I see alot of posts mentioning the '17 rudder issue, not sure if that's the year or not. Either way sucks for everyone involved.

I will forget the lubricating rack and pinion procedure and concentrate on the wheel/cable/rudder. After this weekend I should have alot better idea. It's a quickly developing issue as the first couple times out it was totally fine and randomly turned into an extreme hard lock on left turns resulting in very little turning whatsoever at 20-25 mph. Down to 12-15mph it laid over and turns. I'm leaning heavy towards a binding issue or the wheel now with this information, but time will tell.

[freeheel4life]

PM me your email. Always glad to help.

[MikeB313]

I had same issue with my 2020 22RZX. My steering cable was routed weird and kinked. New steering cable fixed the issue.

[Aschool]

Update from this weekend.

Removed the steering cable from rudder, cleaned and applied a marine grade lithium grease in a light film and worked it by turning the wheel multiple times. Noticed the steering was butter smooth. So I ruled out steering cable. Went down by the rudder, extremely stiff. Zero play side to side or front to back, which is great...however it took substantial effort to go from side to side. The 2019 Tige Zx1 only has (1) zerk fitting from what I could find, alot of pictures I had looked at from previous posts showed (2) on the box. I applied (2) pumps of Amsoil synthetic marine grease slowly while having someone assist with turning the wheel back and forth.

Buttoned everything up and went out for a quick lap or two, not much difference at all. Figured I'd need to go into a bit further, but the kids wanted to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. Roughly an hour into using it the steering became amazing. It turns on a dime now. I'm chalking it up to a neglected rudder box as of now. Thanks for the help.

To completely change gears, had the boat out at night for the first time and noticed the underwater lights wouldn't work. Did some troubleshooting and got back to the power distribution module. The far right connector appears to have broken due to the wires being extremely tight, could have used another 3 inches of wire haha. So I did some cable tieing and got the connector temporarily plugged in and secured with a zip tie.

My question would be regarding the distribution modules, am I correct in saying these dont have a brain? By that I mean it's not a programmed module and I could get one sent my way through a warranty and install it myself? Thanks!