Has anyone ever taken a Mercury Ride Guide Steering Wheel Shaft out and taken to a machine shop, had the end built up with a welder and re-machined down in order to put a 3/4 tapered hole steering wheel on? I'm thinking this is the way to go and just wondered if anyone else has ever attempted to do it. This is the shaft with the square end on one end and female spline on the other
If I wanted to tear half the boat apart and junk something that has no other problem than a loose plastic steering wheel I might just do that. Seeing as though I have a welder and a lathe I was just looking to see if someone else got brave enough to do what I'm wanting to do.
Why does it matter if it's been done before? Just do it.
If it doesn't work then "tear half the boat apart and junk something that has no other problem than a loose plastic srteering wheel"
If it works, then you avoided tearing half the boat apart and junk something that has no other problem than a loose plastic srteering wheel
Gotta question. Is the wheel loose on the shaft or is the shaft worn? The easiest solution may be to shim the square to tighten the wheel on the shaft.
the plastic square seat in the back of the steering wheel is worn. Other than it's just probably been working loose from time to time since 1972 and someone just cranking on the bolt to re-tighten it several times started it to drag on the column and I figured just get a new wheel and put on it. It wasn't rocket science to figure out.the drag noise.I have done a lot of work on this old boat. if you go to my TomSawyer post and click my facebook link you will see I did real well with it.
https://www.facebook.com/greg.beilin...8730833&type=3
already got the new steering wheel. the original was real skinny anyway. Heres my facebook link. If you see what I did to this boat you know why I'm snickering a bit at that shim with a coffee can comment. I even did all the sewing for the seats and pads.
Fortunately or unfortunately I don't do that Facebook thing so I can't check out your work. IBoats is the only social media I belong to. Unless my guess is wrong, you are going to do this and are not asking if, your asking how. I think you will be back in a week or so and update this post and tell us how you did it.
A week? Oh hell no..... The shaft is alum and I don't have a tig. the taper on the square shaft after I took it out, was 9/16 on the end and 15/16 on the other. Centered the steering wheel insert into the lathe chuck and drilled a 9/16 hole as deep as the square hub goes in, just touched the outer part of the insert with a 7/8 bit so I didn't go to far and filed the square taper into all 4 sides. Worked great!!!
Yank on your plastic wheel to simulate a rouge wave or huge log strike. Now imagine that busted sharp plastic wheel spoke impaled thru the roof of your mouth. My boat does not have a seat belt so the only thing holding me in is the wheel. The way I drive or better yet the way the Googans drive has me replacing those degraded plastic wheels and fixing loose/weak helm mounts as a first bit of maintnence.
https://m.facebook.com/iboats/
If your still womdering how FB social media works then click on and like pages like Iboats and whatever old or new boat pages your interested in. When somthing from them pops up in your news feed you need to hit like or else you may not get the next bit of info from that page. So simple a Cave Man can do it. If you stop hitting the like button then your news feed will be full of comunist propaganda. Forums have and do provide a great thing but your missing 60% of whats out there and being pigeon holed. If you do post cool stuff then add me as well. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001107661265
Guess I'll dive into this discussion since I will be attempting to mount a square shaft Destroyer Type Chrome Wheel on a new style round tapered shaft. My thought is to place the round shaft and key into the square adapter and then flow hot solder into the void. Luckily my adapter is aluminum pot metal so I think it should work. I'll post results.
