FYI frozen steering cable ram method

Mitch/canuck

Cadet
Joined
Aug 4, 2013
Messages
12
I recently picked up a used boat. When I was looking at it, the Honda 75hp was facing straight ahead. When I got it home the motor had turned and was facing to starboard with the ram stuck in the tilt tube.
I used the following method to free up the parts. I wanted to soak the area with WD-40 overnight. The threads on the tilt tube got a few wraps of electricians' tape, then I cut a 8" piece of bicycle inner tube and plastic tie strapped it to the taped threads. I've used inner tube for a few different things over the years.
Holding the open end of inner tube up, WD-40 was sprayed in until the top of the tilt tube was covered. A block was placed to hold the free end of the rubber tube up at 90' overnight. The next morning I sprayed in some more oil.
When I got home from work, I drained the remaining oil, cut off the tie strap, and removed the inner tube.
I had picked up a Simpson Strong tie from Home Depot and bolted that to the end of the ram. It's a 90' piece of metal used to join pieces of lumber.
I then attached the puller arms to my sliding hammer and put them around the strong tie and bungeed them to stay in place. I took all of 5 minutes hammering to get the ram and cable moving. I cleaned and greased it and tapped it back into the tilt tube. Had to slide hammer it out again, but after another cleaning and more grease and tapping it back in, I was able to start moving it by hand. I'm thinking my situation wasn't as bad as some of the ones I've seen here, but who knows, maybe longer soaking time and a little more hammering would do the trick for an worse jam.
Amazing fact: No swear words were used during this procedure.
 

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Bondo

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 17, 2002
Messages
70,465
Re: FYI frozen steering cable ram method

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,.... Pretty niffty idea ya pulled off there,.... ;)

Cables freezin' into the tilt tube is a pretty common problem, cause they don't get Greased,...
Even on I/O's it's a common problem,...

Ya could take it a step farther by usin' oil, other than WD-40, 'n addin' air pressure,...
say 10/ 15psi,... hose clamps will hold that much,... 5 psi anyway,....

When I saw yer title, I thought you were oilin' the Entire cable,...
That rarely works,... they wear out,....
 

Mitch/canuck

Cadet
Joined
Aug 4, 2013
Messages
12
Re: FYI frozen steering cable ram method

Thanks Bondo. I still have to remove the cable and clean the inside of the tilt tube. Stand by for inventive swearing.
 

bilge rat jim

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jun 28, 2012
Messages
330
Re: FYI frozen steering cable ram method

That's a very inventive method, for sure! I use a different method- I have a blunt tool-tip I made for my air chisel that just fits in the tilt tube. Usually takes less than 10 seconds to beat the old sleeve out (with the occasional cuss word).
 
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