Folks, 

I posted in here Sunday night looking for help, but removed the post because I was able to figure it all out, thanks to the group commentary here.  I thought I would summarize the learning points here. 

My boat is a Malibu Response LX, year 2000, with an LS1 engine. 

The biggest learnings points I had were:

1. The new cable needs to be pushed through, not pulled through.  This online video here describes it perfectly.  

2. The old cable is no good for fishing the new one through.  

Here is my step by step.  The process took me 6 hours, but had I known these two points above, would have been 1 hour.  

1. Step 1 - Disconnect existing cable from rudder.  Test steering wheel to see if steering is still tight.  Check the "rod" on the rudder end of the cable, it might just need some marine grease.  If grease does not loosen the steering up, the cable is done.  Move to step 2.  

2. Step 2 - Remove 4 bolts of old cable under steering wheel.  Hacksaw to cut off the rack and pinion box of the old cable. 

3. Step 3 - Tape weed wacker line to the old cable at the steering wheel end, and pull the old cable out from the stern (pulling the weed line in from the steering wheel as you pull the old cable out). 

4. Step 4 - Tie a knot on the new steering cable (there is an islet on the rod which attaches to the rudder).  Secure with electrical tape.  Tape up the connection point from the extending rod to the black cable so the cable stays put in the closed position.  

5. Step 5 - PUSH (do not pull) the new cable (rod first) into the floor opening by the drivers footwell.  It takes a lot of effort because the rod is about a foot long.  The video I attached describes perfectly how to do it.  Takes about 20 minutes of hard pushing.  Once you drop the rod below the subfloor, you can easily push the new line through.  Have a helper provide some light pulling on the weed line to guide the new line through, but the biggest force should be the pushing effort from the steering wheel towards the back.  

6. Step 6 - Reattach new cable. 

Andy

I think Porsche says something like "consider range".  Very dignified.

4 minutes ago, justgary said:

Holy cow, edit that away and send him a PM with the info....

Crap, thought I was in a PM.  Edited.  Thanks @justgary

10 minutes ago, blk93jeepzj said:

Here is my cell number

Holy cow, edit that away and send him a PM with the info....

1 hour ago, badluck said:

Well it wasn’t the slightly loose starter cable. Looks like I’m ordering the pps today. Hopefully that’s it

@csleaver posted a link to the manual.  It contains diagnostics for every sensor the ECM uses.  Use the manual and know what is wrong rather than just buying parts and hoping you find a pearl in your oyster.