I have a kinked drive indicator cable- after 16 years. Has anyone done the replacement job? I will probably do both tabs and both drives. I was curious about how difficult this job is and whether anyone has the cable lenghts. Did you buy the super flexible cables or the regular ones? What did you do to reseal the transom? Thanks.

Sea Weasel,

I have done this ... not too difficult. You are on the right track, best to do both at the same time and use top quality cables or you will be back soon. Lengths available from Formula TAG. You might want to pull and reseal the thru-hull fittings (compression-type). I had one leaking on my 311 a few years ago. If not detected, it will eventually soak and dry-rot the transom.

Chris

Dr. Chris always has all of the answers. This goes along with my gauge update and upholstery fix and yaaaada yaaaaada yaaada this winter. Oh well, all it takes is money . . . .

I have done it, and I think it was a bit of PITA, especially dealing with the stupid panel on the dash.

I only did one cable the 1st time, mainly because it was siezed when I bought the boat, and wanted to get in the water as quick as possible (plus already had a good sized laundry list of to-do running). That ended up being not the best move as I lost another the next year, so I did them all then. I bought the cables from Dollar Offshore, and they recommended another brand they said had better quality than Morse for the same money or cheaper, exact replacements - sorry can't remember the name, maybe Northwest?, you could call them...

Doing all 4 at the same time would probably be easier, since the whole dash gauge could come out. I replaced the rubber stopper seals and plastic clips, etc on the tabs cables. The drive cables - put new 5200 around the thru-hulls.

I've got a broken indicator cable on my '89 311 also. Emailed Formula and they gave me the lengths:

Description Length QTY
CBL TH/SHF W-W 23' 33C 276" 2.00 Port Drive/Tab
CBL TH/SHF W-W 22' 33C 264" 1.00 Starboard Drive
CBL TH/SHF W-W 18' 33C 216" 1.00 Starboard Tab

Formula Boats
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The brand you want is CableCraft or Tuthill.
You can always tell their cables because they are ribbed on the outside.
The gray ones are commercial grade and are better than the red Morse/Teleflex ones, however the green EXT grade is the ultimate.

How come I can post a reply but not start a new thread?

I'm looking for info on the older non-stepped hulls vs FasTec's

If you're a member, you should be able to start a thread. Did you pay?

What kind of info are you looking for, I can post a new thread for you if you'd like.

My paid membership has expired, but I don't remember not being able to start a thread as a freebee member.

I'm looking at 1994-'97 30-35' performance boats that are at the dropped off price point and SR-1 boats keep popping up (along with Baja Scarab etc.) I'm on Lake Michigan and wanted feedback on the older non-stepped boats vs. newer for my application.