New steering cable on 05 226 clicking at helm

[justy31]

Hello,

I recently replaced the original steering cable on my 05 226 TE and was amazed at how much my wife and I had been fighting to steer! I am the second owner so I don’t know what a new one should feel like. After taking it out, when I was pulling up my 10 year old, I heard and felt a clicking/pulsing at the helm/steering wheel. I thought maybe the pinion stripped down I frantically stopped and pulled it apart on the water. The gears on both the cable and steering look fine, no rounding or metal fragments. I reassembled and tested it again. It only did this again turning port and only 2 times the rest of the day. I do also notice a pull to the left, not unmanageable, but there is a pull. Is all this normal? I double checked The assemblies and it is pretty straight forward but I have been fooled before! Thanks for any input.

[jkallen21]

I replaced mine in an 06 last summer and had similar issues except mine was either more pronounced or yours will get worse. search the forum for "crunchy steering" to see my post and read the reply from bturner as he recommended doing a lot more than just the cable when you do this. Like he suggests, the helm is a likely problem point. My solution was to take it to the dealer to install a "no feedback" helm which has been flawless. The wheel is a tad "tighter" (easily done one handed but not one finger which is what you likely have now after the cable replacement), but it never steers itself - at full throttle on choppy windy days the boat will not stray from the course the driver sets.

FWIW - I let mine go all summer like this with no repercussions if this is of concern to you. The dealer fixed it while winterizing. Mine did get worse over time. I used the rudder adjustment (the little black plastic piece on the rudder itself) to try to improve things which did help some to get me through. IIRC, you turn it the opposite way the boat is pulling. A little adjustment goes a long way so don't get too carried away, but it's total trial and error.

Good luck!

[windsurfnut]

UGH.. had the same issue on my 196 and chased it for 2 years. Mine would click right in the middle of our dumbbell ski turn and the boat would give a little shimmy. Drove me CRAZY. A couple things I have had success on, but it wasn't until the last that it finally came all together. There are lots of play points in the steering system that can compile to produce the issue. It seems its essentially the point at which the cable pressure changes from pushing to pulling the rudder.

1. Clevis pin at rudder can have some play - replace, or use some pliers to tighten the tolerance up.
2. Rudder packing - repack and grease the rudder. Make sure there is no play here.
3. Helm - Rack and pinion can have some play, as can the bushings in the helm mechanism. I had some success with tightening up the tolerance here by pushing the push nut in, eventually I just replaced it, but it neither ever did fix the problem, only offer slight improvement.
4. Further load the adjustable rudder tab. This fixed my problem completely, and made the boat even better in the ski course. I always had some load on the steering, but giving it another bit of adjustment took all the play out. Maybe it was a combination of all the above, but the rudder trim was the final and most influential correction.


One other theory I had, was the location of the steering tube. When I replaced my cable, I removed the steering tube from the mount. Didn't realize you can do it without removing the mount. So, I'm not sure if my steering tube went in the exact same spot. I think you can change the pressure point (push vs pull) with steering tube position. Note you need to make sure that the rudder cannot "lock" over and hit the prop still. I set mine up to be equal turns to the left or right. I never did get an answer to this theory, so to me, its still just that..a theory.


Hope this helps!

[frozone]

Did you find a guide anywhere on replacing the steering cable on a 226 or did you just figure it out with removing seats, the floor, cutting zip ties, etc? I've got a 2006 226 that I need to dive into and I'm trying to get a sense of what type of effort it's going to take.