last season my 1988 Mercury 175 outboard was very tough to steer. I took off the steering cable and manually moved the engine left to right and it is very stiff. I greased all the fittings I could find and worked the engine back and forth manually to free it up. It got a bit better, but after 1 week of no use, it is got very stiff again.
Do I need to replace some parts, or am I not getting it greased correctly?
Sounds like time to replace the steering cable. You may try to get one of the "cable buddies" and use it to lube up the cable real good. If the cable is that stuck there is probably more wear in it than lube can help...safer to replace it..
Sounds like time to replace the steering cable. You may try to get one of the "cable buddies" and use it to lube up the cable real good. If the cable is that stuck there is probably more wear in it than lube can help...safer to replace it..
It sounds like the engine is stuck, with the cables removed.
Cables should be greased anyway. They last forever if you can keep them lubed, and are expensive and troublesome to replace.
That engine is big enough to hurt you real bad if steering fails. Be sure you get it right. If it isn't dual rack steering, I'd replace it. The single bolt that ties the steering linkage to the motor is critical. Use the right one from Mercury, not a hardware store substitute.
Once those motors get stiff steering, they are hard to loosen 'em up w/o disassembling the midsection. This is a lengthy proposition. Here are a few tricks. As you pump up the grease fittings, see which steering bushing (upper or lower)doesn't get grease. Now it is time to minipulate the motor to grease it. Usually it is the upper.
Tilt the motor up all the way and see if there is vertical play in the swivel tube (powerhead can move up a bit more). Now pump some grease into the fitings, if you can get it to come out the ungreased bushing, you may be able to grease it sufficiently.
In addition a bit of heat on the bushing may melt out the old dirty grease and allow new greasing to enter. If it is the botom bushing, you may remove the grease fitting and blast in some PB Blaster to loosen up the old grease.
This last happened to me in the fall. The upper bushing wasn't getting any grease. I tilted the motor up all the way and tied a piece of rope around the transom bracket and under the Anti-Ventilation plate. I used a stick to tighten the rope like a turniquet (bad spelling). This forced the motor up higher and allowed space between the transom bracket and the swivel shaft bushing. I was able to force some grease into the top bushing.
The steering is a lot easier, although I will not know if it is fixed until the spring.
1988 175 Mercury - Stiff Steering
Re: 1988 175 Mercury - Stiff Steering
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