Mercury Ride Guide steering adjustment, How?

[McGillicuddy]

My Mercury Ride Guide is dangerously misaligned. I get nearly 2 steering wheel rotations to starboard, but only 3/4 to port - greatly hampering steering in tight quarters. The steering to port leaves a lot to be desired and there still a lot of travel room for the drive.

Is the problem in the steering box or in the ride guide itself? The latter seems more logical as if the ride guide attaching nut was attached while the wheel was not centered (in terms of equal steering wheel revs to each side) thus the cable end was not in right place when the steering link rod was attached. Could it be as simple as releasing the the attaching nut, centering the wheel revolutions, and re-attaching said nut?

Seems simple but it has me stumped. Any experience or know-how with this particular problem, any guidance would be very helpful cause the merc manual ain't helping me

[3rdday]

was anyone able to help?

[McGillicuddy]

Not yet, a helpful guy on another site gave me a suggestion but he was talking about the inline rack where mine is a rotary ride guide. Found a parts diagram on line but no schematic or instructions.

I'm guessing there is a specific manual for it but so far no luck. I'd be happy to post some pics and parts diagrams if anyone has some thoughts or experience with this.

Thanks for asking.

-Gillie

[fdheld34]

Gillie, saw your post on other site...I am baffled as well.
If you cant figure it out...pm me and I can mail you my teleflex steering cable, helm and all parts. I have to upgrade to seastar steering due to bracket. Here is a pic of my old set up...worked good for me because there is not alot of room to run a cable out the side of splash well. The steering sleeve is held in place by bracket mounted to inside of transom and then inside cable is secured to tiller arm via a clevis type pin.
-Fred

[hermco]

Can you post a pic of the steering hookup?If yours is like the pic above you will have to reposition the cable holder by determining the center of the wheel play then centering the motor then secure the cable holder and your good to go.

[McGillicuddy]

Thanks for revisiting this guys.
Thanks for the Teleflex offer, Fred. Lets see if we can work this out. Seems so dang simple.

You may notice that the steering link rod is in the forward hole of the engine steering arm - I'm aware of that, and did that to gain a another half inch or so. I'll move it where it belongs.

Here are some pics of what is occurring:




Here are some parts diagrams of the rotary rack, they can be zoomed in on by clicking the + sign:
http://www.crowleymarine.com/mercury_parts/1992/290.cfm

http://www.crowleymarine.com/mercury_parts/1992/70.cfm

Any thought on correcting this precarious steering situation. Thanks.

[bitsamonkey]

It looks like the arm attaching the motor to the teleflex rod is too short. I had a similar problem when I changed from Merc to Yamaha outboard. I ended up welding a short piece of stainless into the arm to lengthen it, but you can probably buy a longer one somewhere.

[McGillicuddy]

Thanks bitsamonkey,
Unfortunately, I don't think that will fully solve the problem. It will help travel to port but will reduce steering to starboard. In the first picture you can see that the cable end is already to wall of the notch above the port locker. If I lengthen the steering rod, the steering to starboard will be reduced because the longer steering rod will fully extend the cable end sooner, reducing rudder movement to starboard.

[bitsamonkey]

Okay, it's hard to explain this without mutually agreed on names for the parts. What I'm saying is that you need to turn your wheel to where the ram of the steering cable is in the middle of its travel and adjust the length of the arm that connects it to the motor so that the motor is centered as well. Now you will have equal travel of the motor in both directions, and from your pictures, it looks like it's too short. I'm referring to the part with the red arrow pointing to it in your picture as the "arm".

[McGillicuddy]

Bits...,
I think I understand what you're saying.
Release the steering rod (arm) by disconnecting the bolt.
Center the steering wheel and cable end (steering ram) then center the drive to see what length the steering rod should be and adapt accordingly. Right idea?

When I do that action, the steering arm is about 1/2" short as you suggest. Is there any adjustment of the connection nuts? Would releasing some grease via the zerk nuts allow the cable end (steering ram) to retract a little more? I only need a half inch...