Drive Position Indicator Cable Trouble....
 

Hey all, minor problem.....ya know....the ones that drive ya mad! lol

Ive recently been experiencing a problem with my starboard side drive indicator on my dash. The flag or pointer intermittently stops around 5 - 6 while the port side continues to 7. When I put my drives down, the starboard flag moves without a problem from 5 to position 1. So both sides work fine only the Starboard side stops at 5-6 but as mentioned, not always.

I took the cable out of the cylinder as far as I could and gave everything a good blast with silicone spray but no change. When it stops moving at say position 5, I can give it a small pull from the back of the boat and the flag on the dash immediately goes past 5 and if the motors trimmed all the out, the flag will go to 7.

I checked both ends and not sure why this would start to snag now and not sure if I need to grease this up or just change the cable. My mechanic showed me where to oil from the rear but lube doesn't seem to make a difference.

Am I missing something? Its a frikkin cable in a housing....motor moves, cable inside slides moving the flag on the dash lol

Thanks in advance

Cheers, Barry

Do you have good spring press pushing the inner black rod outwards?. Mine are a bear to compress.

Hey ZZ good point....I was able to compress the spring with one hand....wasn't easy but did it a few times because while cleaning up the spring, the retaining washer fell out. I'm guessing that the spring shouldn't have compressed so easily while wiping it down with a cloth before blasting it with silicone spray.

I hope its the spring and makes all the sense in the world! I was focussing on the major possibles when the simple would make sense!

Is this a spring to be ordered from fountain ony?

Thx a million in advance

Hmmm I think I recall a threaded screw in the middle of that spring that attaches it to the cylinder that slides back and forth in the housing. I assume for tension adjustment and I could see a good 1 to 2 inches of thread on it...........frig if it's simple as that i'm going to kick myself in the ass lol

Or is that thread used to adjust or line up your flags on the dash........?

You can adj the cable length at either end. In my case I had to adj both ends to make the cable as long as possible.
You will need at least 6 threads or so into the sliding cylinder to get a good bite. Mine was a bit wobbly if only screwed in 3 turns. It's basically machine threads in plastic/nylon/whatever it is..

Here's a thread that describes to rigging of the cable pretty well:

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/f...le-set-up.html


I would remove the spring completely and inspect it for collapsed coils or rust. Probably should pull the spring from the other drive and compare them.
Not sure where to get a replacement. Real Fast Marine may be able to help if Baja/Fountain doesn't have them.

In regards to lubing the mechanism, you shouldn't have to. Same for the cables.

All good! I noticed that I have about 1 to 2 inches of thread that can be used to crew into the cylinder hence creating more tension on the spring. I'll give that a shot and see if that will fix the problem. When it jams, it takes very little pulling pressure to get it to pop into the right position. I'll remove the cylinder from the drive even though I wanted to avoid that but have no choice since I can get the entire spring and piston out otherwise....tried that already and will damage the cable if I force it anymore than I did.

I'll play around with it, I don't see any grease on these things but can't see it hurting. Maybe it just needs to be cleaned out and a little more tension applied to that spring.

I'll keep ya posted, thanks again and have a super weekend!
Barry

Screwing the cable further into the cylinder will change the reading on the indicator at the helm. I don't think that's the answer. Your gonna need to get the cylinder and spring out to see what's going on.
You can unbolt the trim cylinder at each end and move it around (as much as the hyd lines will allow) so the cable isn't being stressed to much. You will have to support the weight of the drive on a block of wood or something before removing the cyl.The other trim cyl will not support the drive. I think I would just un-clamp the tube from the trim cylinder. There's a good chance you will need to loosen the clamps anyway to adj the cable as mentioned in the link.