Freeing Steering Cable

[Jarrah Jack]

The cable in the old tinnie has been getting worse every season so I pulled the thing out of the boat and decided to try freeing it up before I ordered a new one.

In only a few hours it was like new again. I made up an oil cup out of an old flush muff rubber by drilling a hole in the base and fitted it to the head end of the cable. I put it up high to allow oil to drain down the inner cable and filled the cup up with inox a few times and that was it. An hour or so later and the cable was the best its been for a long time.

Makes me wonder how many good cables have been thrown out and replaced adding more dollars to the boating bill.

[Mister]

From a cable manufacturers perspective never enough :) but this has been a rort for many years

One thing I would have don't different was use ATF something which is much more suitable than Inox. 20 years out of the one steering cable should be not a problem.

[murf]

used a grease pump filled with 2 stroke oil and pumped up through a removable fitting made with a grease nipple on the end on the motor end of the cable, make sense????

"used" as in I now have HYD steering :) but still do mates boats to keep the cables freed up

the old gravity oil job has fixed many an expensive car cable too over the years ;)

cheers Murf

[Jarrah Jack]

From a cable manufacturers perspective never enough :) but this has been a rort for many years

One thing I would have don't different was use ATF something which is much more suitable than Inox. 20 years out of the one steering cable should be not a problem.

Nice to see you using a smiley K .:) I'll use the ATF next time.


used a grease pump filled with 2 stroke oil and pumped up through a removable fitting made with a grease nipple on the end on the motor end of the cable, make sense????

"used" as in I now have HYD steering :) but still do mates boats to keep the cables freed up

the old gravity oil job has fixed many an expensive car cable too over the years ;)

cheers Murf

Trouble with you Murf is that there are never any pics so I had to reinvent it myself. :D Still thinking of Whyalla?

[murf]

83225
The black anchor one
Cheers Murf

[murf]

bugger now my hands smell of oil :(

the things i do for you haha

cheers Murf

[Jarrah Jack]

My heart goes out to you mate. Actually good to see you laughing.

[TheRealAndy]

Another fan of ATF here. I use it on my cable.

Guys at the yacht club uses mix of deisel and 2 stroke oil or something like that to free up the old cable steering in the rescue boat. Its hydraulic now though, so no longer an issue.

[Noelm]

while I don't disagree 100% that pulling cables to bits and oiling them with ATF, or greasing them with something does not work, I have found, as a general rule, any such goings on are a tempory fix at best, you will be pulling it to bits again very soon, also not convinced that ATF is all that good for the job, it absorbs water, so to that end, does not SEEM like the ideal lubricant for the job, though lots use it.

[Jarrah Jack]

while I don't disagree 100% that pulling cables to bits and oiling them with ATF, or greasing them with something does not work, I have found, as a general rule, any such goings on are a tempory fix at best, you will be pulling it to bits again very soon, also not convinced that ATF is all that good for the job, it absorbs water, so to that end, does not SEEM like the ideal lubricant for the job, though lots use it.

I'll let you know how the inox goes Noel. What oil would you recommend? Its not a big job to take the cable out in the tinnie so if I have to free it up again next year its no big deal.

Murf's method looks even easier so I'll try to find a nut to match the tohy's tube.

[TheRealAndy]

while I don't disagree 100% that pulling cables to bits and oiling them with ATF, or greasing them with something does not work, I have found, as a general rule, any such goings on are a tempory fix at best, you will be pulling it to bits again very soon, also not convinced that ATF is all that good for the job, it absorbs water, so to that end, does not SEEM like the ideal lubricant for the job, though lots use it.

I have been using ATF for years now, its yet to fail. I first used it after my steering seized, have not done any repairs since. I figure once its dead, it will be replaced with hydraulics, because its impossible to change the cable in a polycraft without lifting the engine off.

[murf]

while I don't disagree 100% that pulling cables to bits and oiling them with ATF, or greasing them with something does not work, I have found, as a general rule, any such goings on are a tempory fix at best, you will be pulling it to bits again very soon, also not convinced that ATF is all that good for the job, it absorbs water, so to that end, does not SEEM like the ideal lubricant for the job, though lots use it.

makes for a perfect preventative maintenance and also at first signs of the steering getting a little tighter pump some more oil in, makes changing expensive cables redundent

just because a cable is dry and not sliding in its casing as easy as it should doesn't mean it is rusted or damaged beyond repair.

I have got some rather stuck cables going again on friends boats and they are still going many years on. I guess if you were paying $95/hr for a mechanic to free it up it would get a bit exy but the good old preventive home maintenance goes a long way for a few cents of oil

cheers Murf

[Noelm]

yep, up to a point I agree, there is no bigger tight ar$e than me, I will play with something for days to save replacing it, and I know ATF has been used by people for ages, but in my experience good marine grease, will stop the cable/steering seizing up in the first place, the problems arise when bearing grease and stuff like that is used in steering.

[Jarrah Jack]

It seems we're talking about two different things here Noel. You can't get grease right up into the cable unless you pull the whole cable apart. The marine grease is for the bottom end that goes through the tilt tube. Oil can be pumped up as Murf does or can be gravity fed down as I did. I still use proper marine grease at the motor end.

[Noelm]

yep, correct, you can however pull some cables out and grease them, and some have a grease nipple at each end.