steering wheel grease

[zippy83]

Hello All,

I was was wondering how I could go about and grease my steering wheel cable? It seems a litle dry. What type of grease would I need to use and where/how would I go about applying that?

Thank you
Zipp

 

[saumon]

Re: steering wheel grease

If you mean the steering tube (in front of the outboard), that's about the only place on a boat where you could put anything (marine grease, white lithium, engine oil, etc.), but it's hard to reach past the few first inches. Some swear by the Steersman nut; haven't tried it myself but I don't boat in salwater, so regular (once a year) oiling is doing fine.

As for the cables themselves, they can't be greased or oiled. Why did you say that "it seems a little dry"? Is is hard to steer? Could be the pivot pin/tube on the mid-section of the engine...

 

[zippy83]

Re: steering wheel grease

I wasnt sure what to call it. In the front of the outboard there is a shaft that comes out and goes in when you steer. It seems very dry. It is a litle hard to steer with it being dry. That is at least what I'm thinking.

 

[southkogs]

Re: steering wheel grease

Generally they have a fitting on them for a grease gun, don't they?

 

[saumon]

Re: steering wheel grease

Generally they have a fitting on them for a grease gun, don't they?

Generally no.



That's why some like to add the Steersman nut, which is the SS nut with a grease fitting on the right in this pic. It purpose being to push lube into the steering tube. Not to be mistaken with the 2 grease fitting on the pivot arm (on the left), that only lubricate the pivot points. Because the steering tube pass through the bracket pivot assembly, people often think that these zerks are to lubricate inside the tube...

 

[zippy83]

Re: steering wheel grease

I will take a picture of what I got when I get home today. I know there is one nut on it

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: steering wheel grease

often the tube is filled with old DRY grease. Removing the arm is easy but most often requires removing the motor to have enough room to get the arm out. Rout the old dry junk out, grease and steering is like new again.

 

[zippy83]

Re: steering wheel grease

Here is a picture of how it looks now

 

[saumon]

Re: steering wheel grease

The fact that the pics are upside down doesn't help but what to need to remove is the black plastic nut in the first pic and try to squeeze some oil in there.

 

[Don S]

Re: steering wheel grease

Remove the nylock A from the connector link and lift the link out of the cable end C.
Disconnect the cable nut B from the motor tube and pull the cable and cable end C out of the tube and clean all the corrosion out of the tube and off the cable end. It should be shiny stainless steel. Not black crud.

Then re-grease the cable and tube and put it back together.

 

[zippy83]

Re: steering wheel grease

Thanks I will try that. Another question what kind of grease should I use? Any particular brand I should be looking at?

 

[saumon]

Re: steering wheel grease

Remove the nylock A from the connector link and lift the link out of the cable end C.
Disconnect the cable nut B from the motor tube and pull the cable and cable end C out of the tube and clean all the corrosion out of the tube and off the cable end. It should be shiny stainless steel. Not black crud.

Then re-grease the cable and tube and put it back together.

View attachment 188672

That's the correct procedure but, in a lot of boats, the 90 degrees bend in the stiff cable, combined with the place where it exit the splashwell, does not permit to back it off more than a couple of inches...

 

[zippy83]

Re: steering wheel grease

I will try it in the next few days and will let you know how it went

 

[Don S]

Re: steering wheel grease

That's the correct procedure but, in a lot of boats, the 90 degrees bend in the stiff cable, combined with the place where it exit the splashwell, does not permit to back it off more than a couple of inches...

Then you take the motor loose and pull it off the cable. A little oil is not going to fix that black crud. It needs the cable pulled out of the motor, the tube cleaned, re-lubed, and put back together. or it's just going to get worse and worse.