Issues after steering cable change

[ThinBuLine]

Hello crew,

changed my steering cable yesterday and huge difference in resistance at the wheel. Very nice.  
 

however, there feels like there is a hang up as some point while turning as my rudder won’t turn all the way left and sometimes a little jarring is needed to get the wheel to come off of full right. 
 

is there an adjustment or anything im missing here? Anything to do with the support bracket? 

[justgary]

The steering tube length is important.  Assuming you got everything back together correctly, try to set the steering tube to the same length as it was with the old cable. 

[ThinBuLine]

11 minutes ago, justgary said:

The steering tube length is important.  Assuming you got everything back together correctly, try to set the steering tube to the same length as it was with the old cable. 

Is this an adjustment made at the big nut? Or with the tube kind of coiled under the helm? 

[justgary]

13 minutes ago, ThinBuLine said:

Is this an adjustment made at the big nut? Or with the tube kind of coiled under the helm? 

The tiller end at the big nut.  The length from the tiller arm to the big nut is very important.  Your tube should have some sort of clamp feature attached to the hull that allows you to move the tube to the correct length and then clamp it down.

[ThinBuLine]

I don’t remember seeing a clamp. I do know that I estimated on the nut tightness as I didn’t see anyone in the how to threads saying to mark it in any way. 
 

the boat is up at the lake 5 hours away and unfortunately I won’t be there for another month as we just came back down to town. I’ll have to take a deeper look at the tiller arm to see why it’s binding then. 
 

is there a guide somewhere on the required length from nut to rudder tiller arm? 

[csleaver]

Over tightening the nut that holds the end of the steering cable to the tiller arm can cause binding, especially when turned fully to the starboard steering lock.  The cable is at its shortest point when it is turned all the way starboard, with most of the cable end in the tube, and it will have very little up and down movement.  When turned all the way port, most of the cable end is out of the tube, and it has more movement and less binding, even when the tiller arm to cable nut is over tightened.  The nut that holds the steering cable to the rudder arm should be a nylock self-locking nut, in good condition, so it can not be turned using just your fingers.

The steering tube is held to the stringer mount with two large nuts.  These should not need do to be moved or adjusted for steering cable replacement, but they should be tight.  Moving the nuts and steering tube will affect the steering throw bias.  The rudder should have nearly the same amount of movement to the port and the starboard, but there is usually a slight bias causing the rudder to turn a bit further to port. 

If the tube is adjusted too far forward, it can cause a very obtuse angle between the rudder arm and steering cable which can lead to the rudder overturning, or "flipping" around backwards.  This would likely happen when the rudder is turned fully starboard while driving in reverse.  That is why steering tube adjustments should be done with care, if needed.

 

[ThinBuLine]

Great explanation. Thank you. 
 

how do you know how much to tighten that nylock big nut then? Is there a torque spec or anything? Wish I would have marked it with white out or nail polish prior to removal… 

 

just loosen until no more binding I’m guessing is what’s going to be required unless there is a better technique? On the nut, it’s stamped “tighten fully.” To me that means tighten until it’s good and tight… lol. 
 

good learning lessons and thanks for the tips. 

[csleaver]

The large steering cable nut that connects the cable to the steering tube should be tightened very securely, and tight, with a 1-1/8 wrench.  The tube may need to be held with locking pliers to do that.

The nylock nut that connects the end of steering cable to the pivot point on the rudder arm stud should be installed using a 9/16 wrench and only tightened enough to prevent the cable end from coming off the stud, but not too tight to allow articulation and prevent cable binding.

[ThinBuLine]

I’m guessing that is the issue! Sorry was misunderstanding which nut we were talking about. I clamped that one down tight so I’m sure that’s the issue. I’ll report back in a month.