Steering Failure......Almost

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Just got back from a few days out sailing. I'm real proud of my young family, not only did we spend a couple nights on the boat (six of us, including a one-year old) but we also went out in some pretty rough conditions this week in the Tampa area. We had been planning this trip for a couple weeks coinciding with the Spring break school holiday and my daughter's 7th birthday on Thursday. Packing up the boat on Tuesday, it started getting obvious that the weather forecasts had been under estimated and instead of the 15-20 mph winds, we ended up getting 20-25 on Tuesday, so we set out on Wednesday thinking it would subside a bit, but instead, it got even stronger with gusts now hitting 30, 4-6 foot seas, and a SCA being issued. I just have the factory reef in the main sail and was doing 7.5 mph with just the reefed main! First time I ever reefed it for that matter. But it was a bit too wild for the first mate and she started the abort procedure a few miles out. So, we turned around and went back to port and spent the night on the boat. But the next day, even though it was only down to about 20 knots with 3-5 foot seas, we set out again and this time, everyone was determined to make the 50 mile round trip cruise to the South of the Bay...and we did. Finding a well protected beach along the way to have lunch at helped a lot too.

But back to the steering failure we almost had. Rolling into St Petersburg on Thursday afternoon, we had 3-6 foot following seas for the last few miles on the West side of the Bay (winds were howling from the East)....this is about as big as I've ever seen the waves get in Tampa Bay. But surfing down these fairly tall but very closely spaced waves gets to be kind of rough on the steering I suppose...rudders clanking around, etc. as you crash into the next wave while still surfing the previous one. We had a great time in St. Pete though, having my daughter's Birthday dinner at Cha Cha Coconuts on the terrace of the pier. There was a live band playing (the Carribean Cowboys) at the club and during one of their breaks the wind picked up a set of speakers and dumped it on one of their guitars .. smashing it...this was even though the band was set up on the leeward side of the building. The poor guys were cursing that wind out and it kept up all night..blowing through the rigging of all the sailboats in the marina.

Friday morning after we motored out of St. Pete harbor, I noticed that the steering was starting to feel funny, kind of like there was slack in the gears and it was clunking when turning to the right. The weather was still running 15-20 right on the nose with rough water so I figured as long as it was still working, I better keep going..there were about 15-20 miles left to go...sometimes had to slow down to 4 mph to keep from pounding too much.

I forget what this type of steering is called on my 2000 model X, but it seems like rack and pinion or something like that. This morning I took the pedistal apart and out of the 4 bolts that hold the pinion to the rack, 1 had fallen out completely and the other 3 were really loose. The whole thing was all sloppy. Since it was so loose, I could see the rack sliding up and down so I took that opportunity to shove some grease into it. I remember a discussion about this on the old board. I basically turned the wheel all the way to the left which slides the rack all the way down, then fed grease into it while turning the wheel to the right and moving the rack up. After I did this and tightened up all the 4 bolts, everything was smooth and tight with the gear clunkiness gone. I sure am glad it held together for me to get back though...would have been a nightmare to lose my steering in those conditions! Anyone else ever had their steering fall apart like that? I figure if it went out on me, I would lash the boat hook to the outboard and hopefully, that would work as an emergency tiller.... I suppose I should practice that sometime just to see if it will work.

[Jack O'Brien]

Dimitri:

I also have a 2000 X and my steering was Detmar (Detroit Marine) rack and pinion. The cable slowly froze to where it was really hard to turn the wheel. There was no way to inject lubricant into the cable. Replaced everything with Teleflex. My rack assembly was still bolted tightly together when I removed it.

[rwpatterson]

Dimitri,

I'm a fellow Tampa Bay area 2000X owner. Just replaced my Detmar with the Teleflex last week. Had the same problem as Jack. Cable froze.

I, too, had tried to lubricate the old rack and pinion when the problem first started. I don't think you're supposed to, but if the thing was going bad anyway, what did I have to lose?

The thing I noticed about the old steering box (helm) was that it was held together with four nuts and bolts that required an Allen Head wrench. If I had had to make a repair on the water, I would not have had the right tools.

I must say, the Teleflex looks heavier, easier to open up, and I've never heard of problems with it. You should consider replacing the old system at the first sign of trouble. The unit cost me $130 including shipping and handling from surplusunlimited.com in Daytona Beach. Since I'm in Sarasota, I had it in two days. Took me and friend about three hours of work to do the swap.

[Jack O'Brien]

The original Detmar cable was eight feet. I installed a Teleflex ten foot but I think the minimum nine foot length would have been just as good.

Be careful - the Teleflex rack is longer than the Detmar and the center of the bigger hole for the helm needs to be lower than the center of the old hole.

[rwpatterson]

Jack is correct again. I used the 10 foot Teleflex. The nine would have been fine.

As for the hole, I cut mine centered on the old hole. The unit barely, and I mean BARELY, fit. You would be advised to match the top of the new whole (which is going to be 2 1/4 inches circumference) to the top of the old whole. This will require some tooling ingenuity, but there is absolutely no space left in my setup. The top of the unit is firmly pressed against the top of the pedestal. I got lucky.

Good luck.

[TampaMac]

I too did the Teleflex mode, only to get better steering not because the old system was broken.

My question - Has anyone ever heard of the Teleflex breaking down?