After doing some more research, it appears to be part of the steering cable system that may not be servicable. Does anyone know what brand this is offhand? The nut looks a little different than a detmar.
If only the nut is broken - yes you can replace it.
How did it break? Were you just disassembling to look/service or did it break on its own?
Is the cable still serviceable? Does the cable move in the jacket? Are the threads on the cable intact? Can you just clean things up, grease the cable and put on a new nut?
It looks like there is a wider-than-thread groove in the upper end of the nut, look for two additional curved pieces of metal, otherwise known as a split-bushing. The split bushing installs in a corresponding groove on the cable. Special purchase.
The same thing happened to me last year. I called BWY and they said that I had to replace the whole steering, which I did. In case of emergency you can put a hose clamp over the broken nut, I had to do to get back to the trailer.
Long story short: You guys are right and I have to replace the whole steering assembly.
It is a special nut and it seems like such a waste to replace since a majority of the system is still working.
I was actually thinking of getting a regular nut and welding a washer on the end of it to keep the cable captive. I think this would work, but it would require me to remove the cable anyway to slide on the nut, so I figure that I might as well replace the whole thing for almost the same amount of labor.
I'm in kind of a time crunch since I need the steering system right a way for my trip later this week, so I ended up just buying a uflex system from Amazon with 1 day shipping. Gotta love that Amazon Prime.
It's kind of too late to ask, but are all the cable nuts on these steering systems a standard diameter and thread? Are the steering shafts for the steering wheel standard as well?
Thanks for everyone's help! It saves me so many trips back and forth to the boat to figure things out.
-Randy
Last edited by trdprotruck on Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
trdprotruck wrote:
It's kind of too late to ask, but are all the cable nuts on these steering systems a standard diameter and thread? Are the steering shafts for the steering wheel standard as well?
Having changed to an Uflex steering (Ultraflex called in GE) last week I can confirm: The nut will fit
My X has had finger tip steering since I bought the boat new in 99. My nut is chrome. I wanted to take the cable out to lube it but can't budge that nut. I put a 270# guy on it and he can't budge it. I sure hope the steering doesn't go out.
capncarp
99
I installed the Uflex rotary steering system and it works pretty well. For others that may want to do this install, I used the 11 foot version. After doing a lot of searching, it seams that many people have steering lengths from 8 feet to 12 and I couldn't really get a straight answer regarding which length I needed. The original detmar cable was 8 feet and went pretty straight back after coming down through the pedestal. With my 11 foot version I was able to route my steering cable to the side and follow the hull back to the cable exit. The extra length makes the bends in the cable a lot more gentle than the detmar routing. Even if I were to use the original routing, I think there might be too much friction from the bends in the uflex cable to work properly.
I used the 11 foot version. After doing a lot of searching, it seams that many people have steering lengths from 8 feet to 12 and I couldn't really get a straight answer regarding which length I needed.
I can confirm that the 11 foot cable seems to be a perfect fit. The bend radius is such that the cable will go all the way to the hull and have a smooth bend to the motor well. I just replaced my cable and had to use a very large pipe wrench to take the nut off.
If anyone needs the old detmar rack & pinion system, I have all the parts minus the cable with the missing nut. Might make someone's repair easier rather than replacing the whole thing.
