Stiff steering has me stumped. 1999 Merc 5.7 Bravo 3

[firel7]

I have read and read some more on these forums. Maybe even so much that I am now confused. Last fall I purchased a boat that has lived in brackish water. It has very stiff steering that feels almost like there is no assist. It has a newer style Merc actuator. After much reading I found posts saying it was likely either the cable or the cable seized in the aluminum tube. Well long story short today I disconnected the end of the cable from the pin while leaving the cable nut attached. I was stunned when the wheel turned with ease because I was certain that was the problem. After that I reattached and made another discovery. While engine rpms have no effect on the steering difficulty I did find that if you rotate the helm very quickly there is some assist. If you rotate slowly it definitely takes 2 hands. Here are my series of questions.
1 If it turns with ease while just having the pin out so the cable end is moving in the tube does that rule out the cable and the tube?
2 Is there something on the tube that actually needs to move to actuate the cylinder? If so how much and how freely?
3 The merc manual says that that actuator is not serviceable is this indeed true or is there something that can be done to free whatever might need freeing?
4 Would the fact that there is power assist when the helm is rotated rapidly rule out a pump or pressure problem? Or would it mean that there is a pump or pressure problem?
5 Is there an easy way to test the system to figure out what might be bad? And is there anything I could have overlooked to this point?

 

[firel7]

Re: Stiff steering has me stumped. 1999 Merc 5.7 Bravo 3

Sorry posted in wrong forum, I was undecided and looked at examples, flipped a coin and missed. Hopefully now someone can help me. Thanks all in advance.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Stiff steering has me stumped. 1999 Merc 5.7 Bravo 3

page 5-2 here http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Techbk/97/97hs5.pdf

 

[firel7]

Re: Stiff steering has me stumped. 1999 Merc 5.7 Bravo 3

Ok Thank you BT Doctor. After looking at that diagram I have a cable that does not have the grease fitting so that cannot be lubed. All else is lubed and the flats are vertical as best I can tell by eye. Do they have to be perfect or is by eye close enough? I also checked the torque on the nuts and all is good there.

The confusing part is if you turn the helm very rapidly you do get some assist. When turning slow there is little to no assist. Have you ever seen this? If so what caused it?

I guess what I am asking is should I order a new actuator and assume that is the problem? or could it be something else?

 

[samm835]

Re: Stiff steering has me stumped. 1999 Merc 5.7 Bravo 3

I don't have to much to help with but this is what I did when my steering was very stiff to turn. I took the pins out of the cable, I was told to see if the outdrive moved freely NOT attached to the steering(mine moved easy). This will determine if its the outdrive or if it other things. Since my cable was a closed cable and had no grease zerks, I greased the aluminum tube the cable slides through hoping that would help......well it didn't. I ended up buying a new cable and replaced the old one. Mine was fairly easy to do ($150.00-cable), I have a 21ft open bow boat with a 4.3 merc/alphaone gen 2 drive. Now that the new cable is in....I can turn with one finger, as before two hands and tough to do. I would bet your issue is your cable.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Stiff steering has me stumped. 1999 Merc 5.7 Bravo 3

Ok Thank you BT Doctor. After looking at that diagram I have a cable that does not have the grease fitting so that cannot be lubed. All else is lubed and the flats are vertical as best I can tell by eye. Do they have to be perfect or is by eye close enough? I also checked the torque on the nuts and all is good there.

The confusing part is if you turn the helm very rapidly you do get some assist. When turning slow there is little to no assist. Have you ever seen this? If so what caused it?

I guess what I am asking is should I order a new actuator and assume that is the problem? or could it be something else?

Ayuh,... Welcome Aboard,..... Have ya loosened the big nut on the cable, 'n pulled the cable completely Outa the aluminum tube,..??

Try it,... Corrosion inside it can do some Funny things,....

 

[dubs283]

Re: Stiff steering has me stumped. 1999 Merc 5.7 Bravo 3

have you checked the level of fluid in the power steering reservior??

 

[firel7]

Re: Stiff steering has me stumped. 1999 Merc 5.7 Bravo 3

That is what I was looking for ty all. I have checked the fluid and it is full and normal color and odor. The cable does move freely in the tube with just the one pin disconnected. I had assumed that would rule out a bad cable. I will try and disconnect the cable completely and see how it acts. As far as the drive I did not disconnect that pin so I will try that also and report back. I am hoping it is just corrosion that would be the cheap thing!!!

 

[firel7]

Ok after much further searching I have now completely removed the cable from the tube and it was as free as a bird. It is also free with just the pin removed and still in the tube. Fluid level is good and all appears normal. What I have noticed is that it seems the part of the actuator that is supposed to move in and out with the sheath of the steering cable does not seem to move enough. This is the actual part that the nut on the cable is attached to. the tube is aligned with the flats on the vertical. When I jerk rapidly on the wheel it does move and the steering assist kicks in only to slow when I turn the wheel at a steady pace. It does this in both directions. I have continuously worked it back and forth and it does seem to be getting slightly better but still not there. The cable does not seem to have any restrictions as far as I can tell it is free from the forward portion of the engine compartment an has a nice gentle bend all of the way to the actuator. It seems to me as though the actuator itself may be corroded or gummed up. Is this possible, or likely. I would think there would be a way to lube it or free it up but I cannot see anything.
Should I try pb blaster or wd-40 or some other type of lube to try to free it up? Is there a way to rebuild or free up the assembly that any member has done successfully? Or is it likely a cable problem even though it is moving freely? It seems that if there were more friction or binding in the cable the outer sheath would move more actuating the valve in the actuator sooner thus providing the assist needed.
Is there any other solutions I may have overlooked?

 

[firel7]

Does anyone have a follow up suggestion for me?

 

[NHGuy]

If it's anything like an alpha it sounds as if the actuator or it's pivot are too stiff. When you turn the steering the anchored inner end of the cable is supposed to move a lever that causes the assist to help you turn the steering. That inner end (where the cable end comes out of the tube) is attached to the power assist unit. With the engine off try to work that attachment point back and forth horizontally. If it's sticky and frees up that could be your solution.

 

[alldodge]

Are the slots on the ram straight up and down?

 

[firel7]

Ok I am going to work this backwards here. Yes he slots on the tube that the cable goes through are straight up and down. As far as the inner end or connecting point I just want to make sure I understand clearly. It seems to me that the part of the actuator that the cable is attached to by the nut towards the end of the cable is supposed to move and mine does (I am questioning if it is moving enough or freely enough) when acted upon by the cable during steering. I have worked it back and forth quite a lot using the steering wheel. It is very difficult to impossible to move by hand though but could be a result of difficult access. Remember if I turn the wheel rapidly I do get power assist. If I turn it at a slow steady pace the is no assist. If I jerk it fast the slow to a steady pace I will get assist but lose it when at a steady pace in the same direction.
Actually as I think about it more and more there has to be some type of spring internal to the actuator that returns that valve to center or neutral position. Does this sound about right? It almost seems as if there is one could it be too stiff for proper action from the cable input? Could there be an adjustment for something like that? Could it be just crudded up and that is the whole problem? Or could it be as a result of a bad cable in a failure different than the norm? I am so baffled and trying to figure it out. Again thanks for the help and suggestions everyone!!!

 

[Blue Water Paradise Inc]

My apologies, I've been reading the forum but just started to hopefully assist other boat lovers to get on the water. I too had a very stiff steering on my Sea Ray Pachanga 22. It has an I/O 5.7 with power assist. Since it was so so hard to turn my first choice was to isolate. I disconnected the cable from the stern drive. The stiff steering remained as brutal as ever so I new it was in deed the cable. Now, this craft is 28 years old so we decided to remove clean and inspect the actuator only because it was so old and I wanted everything to work like new. My son was disassembling when all of the sudden the internal components fell out with him not knowing what order. This is a good time to have a very good schematic of operation, which we did. I've rebuilt the entire actuator by simply removing it from the boat putting it in a box not to loose anything and cleaned every piece as clean as clean can get. I did this because when we did disassemble we could feel metal shavings in the lubed area. That is what I would suggest you attempt. It wasn't as difficult as anticipated. A complete cleaning of the actuator. Once we completed the install, everything worked exactly as described from priming to balancing to operational correctness. Before I would have to use both hands to turn the wheel and forget about turning at all when coming out of the hole. Now one finger movement and it stays straight with no drift.