2000 150 Mercury Steering Problems

I bought my boat about 5 months ago found out steering cable was in need of replacement (cable was tight even when disconected from motor) . No big deal! Well last week I broke the helm trying to turn the motor. time to replace helm and cable which is a telflex system. well come to find out the motor is locking up on me too!. I have greased the motor about 3 times since i've had the newer motor on the boat. I greased the motor today trying to get it to free up but it not working. the grease point is only 2 inches from the top of the pivit section but i'm only getting grease to come out from the bottom and none from the top which is were i think it locking up at. I even tried wraping the bottom section to stop the grease so it would push the old grease out the top but it did not work. Any help or ideas on this subject would great! I've looked through past steering threads and post with no good input for my problem. Thanks in advance! MUD!

Re: 2000 150 Mercury Steering Problems

Mud, Tilt the motor up all the way and see if you can lift it up on the steering shaft to close the bottom bushing space and open the top bushing space. I tied a rope around the AV plate and twisted the rope with a stick to make it tight like a touriquet. That lifter the motor on the shaft and allowed the grease to come out the top bushing. If that doesn't get it, you can try some heat on the upper bushing to melt off the old grease.

Re: 2000 150 Mercury Steering Problems

I tried useing some cheese cloth on the AV plate as a touriquet. I'll try using rope this next time. I tried to get the weight off the av plate so I could move the motor up with no luck. As for tilting the motor up it can only go so high be for it hits the back of the boat due to the gell bracket set up. I was hoping the stay away from using heat being I don't want to burn off the paint. It does seem that i'm going to have to give it a try I need this thing to loosen up! Thanks! Chris 1956

Re: 2000 150 Mercury Steering Problems

Mud, let me know if you had sucess. I have exact same problem on my Black Max 150. Pete

Re: 2000 150 Mercury Steering Problems

Mud, let me know if you had sucess. I have exact same problem on my Black Max 150. Pete

Re: 2000 150 Mercury Steering Problems

We had very little sucess! We used rope and heat nothing worked. we pulled the power head off and pulled apart the sections of the motor and motor mounts. it was not the funest thing i have ever done! we had to purcase a new steering shaft and arm. this thing was about $500.00. OMG! the shaft itself is now made out of stainless which is nice. BUT! They are still using regular steel for the rest of the unit which does not help on rust issues where it counts! total cost for us to fix this was about $900.00 after replacing steering shaft, studs, bolts and gaskets. sorry it took so long to up date!

Re: 2000 150 Mercury Steering Problems

MUDWISER316 said:

We had very little sucess! We used rope and heat nothing worked. we pulled the power head off and pulled apart the sections of the motor and motor mounts. it was not the funest thing i have ever done! we had to purcase a new steering shaft and arm. this thing was about $500.00. OMG! the shaft itself is now made out of stainless which is nice. BUT! They are still using regular steel for the rest of the unit which does not help on rust issues where it counts! total cost for us to fix this was about $900.00 after replacing steering shaft, studs, bolts and gaskets. sorry it took so long to up date!

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Moral of the story...........

Grease is cheeper than parts.