Stiff Steering

[Wakes]

So the steering on my 2001 RLX has become unreal stiff.... I called my dealer and he said I needed a new teleflex cable and it would be a couple hundred bucks. My questions are, can I just lube my cable and keep using it, is there anything else other than a bad cable that could be causing it? If not, is there anywhere online I could order the cable? I am not particularly fond of using my dealer if I don't have to. My current cable is only like 3 seasons old, although my boat sits in the water so the plug needs to stay in (some water in bilge).

[ColinP]

The time and effort of disassembling the cable assembly to clean and lube it is not worth it. You will need some very special tools and hardware. Its much easier just to replace the entire piece with a new one. Aside from the cable, your rudder pivot and cable adjuster pivot and steering rack could need some service too. But usually if the steering is really stiff like you said, it's the cable that's bad. If your cable has some grease fittings on it, there is a slight chance that shooting some grease in there will remedy the problem.

[REW]

You should be able to order the cable from any of the usuall suspects (bakes, west marine, etc.)