Steering play?

[rickasbury]

So, I rebuilt my bravo lll transom asy to include my steering pin. The old one did not look terribly worn but I replaced it. Boat has 300 hours on it. I expected the out drive side to side play to tighten up but it did not. You can push the out drive left to right easily without turning the steering wheel- is there any adjustment to the cable? I'm thinking not...there is a good amount of slop to the left and right before you feel like your pushing on the cable itself....

 

[DouglasW]

I believe that is normal if the engine has not been run for a while, like an hour or more. Do your test shortly after or during running the engine. The power steering pressure will be up that way (until it bleeds off later) and the drive will be locked in place.

If you have regular cable steering, that will always be loose to a degree.

 

[harringtondav]

^^+1 That will stiffen up any hyd slop. Hopefully you torqued the steering arm to the shaft to spec while you had good access. Make sure the gimbal ring is also properly torqued to the steering shaft. The top two bolts on the gimbal ring should be torqued to 55 ft lb. Make sure the steering cable coupler nut is torqued to the steering valve. 35 ft lb.

Then you need to shake it down with a helper moving the O/D and steering wheel while you watch the steering arm.

 

[DouglasW]

The top two bolts on the gimbal ring should be torqued to 55 ft lb.
.

Yes, if I remember correctly that is a maintenance item to be done periodically anyway. I had about 3/4" of play in my drive until I retorqued those two bolts. The play dropped to 1/4".

 

[rickasbury]

Good info, thanks...I'm all about using the torque wrench...where is the cable coupler? I did not take anything apart when I pulled the motor and transom asy and did not check anything on the steering...

 

[Bondo]

and did not check anything on the steering

Ayuh,..... Findin' slop in the steerin' system works Best, with 3 people,.....

1 to hold the steerin' wheel while the drive is shaken, 'n to shake the steerin' wheel while the drive is held,......
1 to do the same at the drive,.....
The 3rd to crawl under the helm to look,.. crawl into the bilge to look at the transom,......
'n to look at the outer transom areas,....

Where the slop is seen, determines the steps forward,....

 

[rickasbury]

I will have to look at how that is put together ....I'm learning way more about this boat than I ever wanted to....on to the next for now!

 

[harringtondav]

where is the cable coupler?

I'm assuming you have steering cable operated power steering. I'd also assume you removed it to do your steering shaft replacement. The coupling nut and torque procedure is shown below. The nut must be tight. Besides being dangerous, a loose coupling can introduce lost motion - slop in the the steering.

 

[rickasbury]

No, I just had to unhook from the steering lever at the pin- did not go any further back to undo anything....