Change of steering mechanism

[Lynton B]

I want to change my steering mechanism from a rack and pinion cable steering to hydraulic. Can anyone direct me to any literature on how I might remove the rack and pinion/cable set up from my boat.:(

[Noelm]

pretty easy to remove the old steering, not too sure you would need any instructions, are you particularly stuck on something?

[Lynton B]

Noelm

Thanks for your response.

Especially I would like to know how you remove the cable from the rack and pinion mechanism; and the cable from the motor end - and then remove the cable from the outer tube. After this the outer tube should be easily removed. Can you advise?

[Getout]

When you undo the large nut where the cable enters the tilt tube (the horizontal pivot point for the outboard, located at the transom), the cable assy can be withdrawn.
Good move. Once you've had hydraulic steering, you'll never go back to cable!

[Noelm]

the inner and outer cables are usualy not seperated (but I guess you could) they are removed in one piece, the Motor end is as described by getout, just undo the steering link arm, remove the big retaining nut and slide the cable out, BUT, sometimes the motor well is too small and the motor needs to be unbolted and swung to one side to fully withdraw the cable, at the helm/dash end there is two different systems, one a true "rack and pinion" that has a toothed bar and a gear connected to the wheel that moves it, this is easy to remove, there is two or 4 bolts behind the dash that simply lets the rack to be removed as an assemble with the cable attached, the other system is a single bolt that goes through the steering box and fits into a groove in the outer cable that stops it from moving, just undo and remove that bolt, turn the wheel and the cable will just wind out of the box.

[Lynton B]

Thanks Noelm and Getout for your helpful advice. I will let you know how I go this weekend!