Teleflex tilt helm overhaul

[aZ`]

Can anyone tell me what an acceptable amount of rotational play is in one of these helms?
I had over 1" (measured at the outer of the steering wheel) pulled it down and found the culprit to be the universal joint. There's play in the shaft to dowel, dowel to half moons and half moons to housing with the most obvious wear to the housing. So I machined about .010" off each of the mating surfaces, regressed everything and reassembled. This dropped the amount of play to about 5/8" is this normal or should I replace the dowel and half moons? If these are available as a kit of course.
All of this was conducted on a work bench so pinion to rack is not a consideration.


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[jhersey29]

Teleflex only sells the entire tilt control. Nautiqueparts has the tilt mechanism. Its not terribly expensive.
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[aZ`]

Thanks jhersey. Would you happen to know if the amount of play I described is normal or excessive? I don't want to replace it only to find it's no better than the one I have.


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[jhersey29]

I'm a little confused by your description. Rotational play to me would be turning wheel right to left.and having a lag in the rudder movement. All my boats have had zero lag and no play before engaging the steering cable as.far as rotation. All of them have had a little slop in the wheel and it is darn annoying. 5/8 seems like a lot. I'll try to find the article.with the bushing. That might help. Will link a 2nd post

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[jhersey29]

Well tapatalk is not helping. Search for Teleflex bushing. That article might help a little but I found most my play in the pot metal ball and socket mechanism that allows foe tilt. My play is all tilt versus rotational.
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[aZ`]

Thanks for that. I have zero lateral movement of the wheel, no for and aft play and cannot tilt the wheel at all. The only play is rotational. This may be accentuated when driving because the cable is tight and needs replacement, so it loads everything up much more before I see any rudder output. I was trying to figure out if I should order any helm parts with the cable. Being in Australia I would prefer to only pay for postage once.


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