Lubricate Rudder

[Liamfm]

Hi all, '97 Sport. The steering, yesterday when taking the boat out for the season, was noticeably harder to turn. Sounds like 50/50 either a new cable is needed, or maybe the rudder just needs to be lubricated. I haven't torn into it yet, but it sounds like there is probably not a zerk fitting on these years. So, question is - at which point am I removing the cable from the rudder? (am I removing the trailing arm completely from the rudder box, or the cable from the far end of the trailing arm?)

Second question - once I do whatever in the first question, how do I properly lubricate the rudder?

Thanks - any help and/or photos would be awesome. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but learning my way around this boat still.

[charlesml3]

OK, first of all, no there is no Zerk fitting on that rudder stuffing box unless someone added one.

Next, we need sort out where the problem is, and it's pretty easy:

- At the tiller arm, disconnect the cable from the end of the arm. It's one bolt at the far end of the arm.

- Test the steering. Move the steering wheel lock-to-lock. Is it still stiff? If so, the cable is bad. If it's nice and smooth, the rudder stuffing box needs to be lubricated.

Honestly, on a 97 my money is on the cable. The one on my 99 Air lasted about 15 years before it went bad and you're most likely overdue. If that's the case, there are threads here on how to replace the cable.

If it happens to be the rudder lubrication, it's pretty easy.

- Right on top of the rudder shaft will be a bolt. Most likely it's being retained by safety wire. You'll need to remove the wire and the bolt. There will be at least one washer that'll come with the bolt.

- Next you should see the square end of the rudder clearly. The tiller arm is clamped onto that.

- Have someone hold the rudder and loosen the bolt on the tiller arm and slide it up and off. The rudder will pull down and out of the boat at this point.

- Clean the old grease off the rudder shaft. Clean it out of the stuffing box as well. You don't need to go crazy here with degreasers and all that. I just push some paper towels in from the top and shove them through and out the bottom with a screwdriver or something. Just get most of it out.

- Grease the rudder shaft. Give it a good coating.

- From underneath the boat, glob grease just inside the stuffing box. Put a good amount there.

- Slide the rudder back in and give it several good twists back and forth to distribute the grease around.

- Have your assistant hold the rudder fully up in the boat and at amidships.

- Wipe off the excess grease from the top and reattach the tiller arm and top bolt.

- If the safety wire didn't survive, you can use solid-core copper wire. I just strip the insulation off of it and wrap it like it was before.

- Reattach the steering cable to the tiller arm and you should be good to go.

[Liamfm]

Perfect, this was exactly what I was looking for.

If you're right about the cable, teleflex or OEM? What is the general preference?

[charlesml3]

I went with OEM. Nautiqueparts sells what you need and they've improved it quite a bit since 97.

And if it does turn out to be the cable, you might as well pull the rudder and lubricate it as outlined above since you're already in there anyway...

-Charles

[Liamfm]

Thanks Charles - It is the cable :-(. Rudder moves freely.

To replace the cable looks straightforward. I suspect the best way is tie a rope to the current one at the transom and pull forward? Then pull the new one through?

Any tips or tricks from anyone?

[charlesml3]

That's about it. A couple of tips:

- The end of the cable sheath screws into a tube that's clamped in the bottom of the boat. Do not remove the tube or the clamp bolts. The cable sheath has a big nut on it and it just unscrews from that tube and slides out.

- When you're feeding the new cable in from the front, push the end of the cable into the sheath as far as it will go. This will allow it to make the turn under the helm.

- Your steering wheel will almost for sure be crooked when you're done. There's a bolt under the cap in the middle of the steering wheel. You can remove that and reposition the wheel so it's straight again.

That's about it. I did it by myself in about 4 hours with an Air Nautique. Much more time due to me having to deal with ballast tanks.

PM me if you have any questions and I'll shoot you my cell.

-Charles

[Liamfm]

Thanks, I'll shoot you a PM now, just in case I get stuck, but I'll wait to ask more questions until I have the new part in hand (that usually helps me understand how things work).