snopro13

Sorry for the wrong info but I knew it was something with the gimbal,guess I wasn't thinking enough!! I had the same problem and had it fixed and added external steering at the same time..

RaggedEdge

The first, and obvious, place to look is the steering cable itself. Over time they just chit out, check the helm unit as well. The key here is your statement that when moving the drive that much the wheel is not moving with it. There is no way that much movement is not going to be all in the drive assembly. Second place to go would be the upper pin where the gimble ring attaches to the transom assembly, they can wear or loosen over time, Merc has a repair kit for this, have seen the kit installed many times with no adverse effects on a normal boat. The way to check for wear here is to lift on the tail of the drive and watch/feel for movement in the pin. If you are not sure of your abilities to diagnose this take it to a good marine repair facility, if something fails in the steering, even at modest speeds, you can get into trouble. Full hydraulic steering is the ultimate system, if you do not want to spend that kind of money simply replace the entire system,cable and helm, that you have now, it is not that expensive to do, you should then be good for many years to come.

cougar25

Where can this kit be ordered from and what type of money are we talking about to have someone fix it. Seems to be a job that is a bit out of my do it yourself range

BY U BOY

www.jrmarine.com its about 50 bucks but you will also need a new gimble about 900.00 new.Sometimes you can find them on ebay for about 400. You can also send the gimble ring to jr marine and they will weld it and machine back to new. 250.00

cougar25

I talked to a mechanic today and I am bringing the boat to him this week end. He said I need to put hydraulic steering on it also. I know it will help and I intended to install one. It was on my list of things I wanted to do. I really do not have the money to do it at this point. If I fix the problem at hand it should be ok til the offseason when i have more money to upgrade the steering to hydraulic. He says if I don't I will have same problem and have to repeat the repair. It took 7 years for it to get to this point will two months really hurt? Also he said he does not do the cutting into housing fix he will pull the motor to get to it.

007joe

iTrader: (1)

i have a similar problem on an '06 boat with like 50 hrs on it.... the cables could'nt have stretched and just need adjustment?.... my boat only runs high sixty's should i also be considering hydraulic steering?

Den P

Where could I see an example of external steering? I have an 89 25 ft Rogue, with aa Bravo 1. Gimbal appears to be ok, and am pretty sure my steering arm is shot. I MIGHT be able to get at it from the inside, as I have quite a bit of room to work with, but if not, planned on going with the external repair kit...Thanks for your help...Den

Revspan

Does anyone have an idea of how much play would be considered acceptable? I have about 5/8 of an inch measured from the prop area(as far away from the gimble as possible). Thanks

txriverrat2001

Around here that's good.... I've seen 'em swing 3-4 inches.... and they still drive them.....