Steering Wheel 'Rattle' - Steering Cable Needs Adjustment?

[Rusty Axle]

2006 Nautique 226

I noticed the steering wheel made a rattling noise and jumped around slightly when adding throttle from idle speed.

Grabbing the rudder, I can move it back and forth slightly, maybe 1/4" to 3/8" loose travel.

The prop is in fine shape, no nicks or bends.

New steering cables were installed a couple years ago.

Do I need to remove the slack, or is this just a a feature?

[bturner]

It may not seem like it but there's a pretty big difference in my book between 1/4" and nearly 1/2" of "slack" in the steering. If we're talking 1/4" of steering wheel movement before steering input occurs, to me, this is a sign the rack or the pinion has wear that is going to need attention. At a 1/2" we're talking an inch in travel from right to left which for me means it should be pretty high on the list of repairs/upgrades to address. Can you continue to run like this or worse? Of course you can, but I personally wouldn't.

So what's wrong with it? Well, hard to say without being there but there are some areas that typically show up with a boat that is going to be 20 YO next year and some that occur when things like perished steering cables have not been addressed quickly enough, which happens frequently as they're just one of those things that sneak up on you. If I had to guess from all these miles away and without ever seeing or touching the boat, my first tendency would be to go after the installation of the cables. There is no "slack" to pull out of these cables that will effect the tightness of the steering but there are places that might not have been tightened or installed correctly and also places where wear could have occurred. In this case I would start at the rudder and work back to the the helm.

Rudder port and tiller arm - This can be a bit difficult to diagnose if your doing it yourself but I like to block the rudder from moving and then try turning the steering wheel while observing the tiller arm and rudder shaft. When you load and unload pressure on the steering wheel do you see any significant movement of the cable coupler or any movement where the tiller arm mounts to the rudder shaft? Does the rudder shaft wallow in the rudder port? There's a reason all these areas are on the maintenance schedule and need to be lubricated and not doing so will cause were and add slop to the steering.

Steering cable support - I've seen this one a couple times. This support is going to be located on one of the stringers typically on the starboard side. I've seen these loose, rusted and poorly reinstalled after a cable has been replaced. These typically have one of more grease fittings which some people neglect to maintain as it can be a dirty and difficult job to do on vDrives and the floor access panel needs to come up to get to it on an inboard. There's that lazy side of all of us that will glance at it during winterization and say meh and move on. Or, the out of sight, out of mind attitude we let ourselves get into that glosses over it as a critical maintenance item but after a few seasons..... It is also something that can be difficult to get to during a cable replacement and may not get fully tightened or adjusted properly. This is low hanging fruit and easy to check during the loading/unloading procedure mentioned above.

Rack pinion - And then there's what it probably is. By the time you finally get around to replacing a stiff cable, the pinion of the rack and pinion system has probably been significantly worn as well. As the cable starts to go more effort is placed on the pinion which greatly accelerates wear. If you've changed a few of these you'll notice all the grey grease that was once probably amber in color when new. It turned grey from the metal that has worn on both the rack and the pinion but what gets replaced? The rack which is part of the steering cable. It is rare that someone actually replaces both but if I'm doing a steering cable, especially if it the second or third cable (I tend to get stuck working on the older boats for some reason) I'm doing the steering rack helm assembly as well. Yes, it's expensive I know but if you don't, don't complain about sloppy steering or a tilt mechanism that wobbles around either. By the time the boat is 20 years and 500+ hours old these are typically toast. I rebuilt the BIL's steering system a couple years back after stating the steering was loose and tilt wobbled. I did the steering tilt helm, the cable and found the cable brace bolt had almost back completely out of their mounting. Took a complete morning to install but the boat still handles like the day he bought it. It was truly and night and day difference.

https://skiboatpartsonline.com/Marin...-tilt-sbs-0055

Whenever I hear someone complain about loose steering then mention having replaced a steering cable, this is the first thing I ask about. Lots of shops know about this but won't mention it as customers don't want to hear it or the price to do the job correctly. That and 90% of the time the customer will be so happy they're not dealing with the stiff cable they'll write the slop in the steering off to the boat being older. I typically work for lunch and beer so my pitch is that we can do the entire job for about what the dealer will charge for just the cable.

But then again, these are just my thoughts and who knows, I could be completely wrong.....

[Scooter G]

Man $300 bones doesn't seem too outlandish for the whole rack & tilt, especially compared to other parts labeled "marine". I would of guessed way more.

[Kmayotte]

Bturner gave an extensive answer. Before replacing anything I would check every connection, nut, bolt etc. from rudder to steering wheel.
I had a rattle (can't say the same as yours) and it turned out to be the bolt/nut that attached the steering cable to the rudder. Just needed to be tightened.

[Rusty Axle]

Lots of high-value information. Thank you.

[Rusty Axle]

OK - boat is out for the season and there is time to address issues and prep for spring. The collar that the arrow is pointing at is is loose and allows about 1/8 to 1/4 movement when I hold the shaft it is connected to. I'll guess that there is a sleeve in there that is worn?

[machyy1]

Yes, here is a new one: https://nautiqueparts.com/clevis-kit-2000s-and-newer/