MacGregorSailors.com

Hi
My steering is sloppy and understand that new steering cable may help. BW yachts have steering cables for two kind of steering systems:

i) rack and pinion system
ii) rotary steering

Anyone know what kind of steering I would have in my 1999 26 x and how I would tell?
I do not know how to tell these steering systems apart. Anybody have a picture?

Thanks

Give Ezra of BWY a call, he is switched on and is very helpful

This page has pics, descriptions and pros/cons of both.

https://www.westmarine.com/WestAdvisor/ ... l-Steering


My 2000 has r&p.

Remove the port side panel of your steering pedestal and compare whats inside against the pics in Dave's link, or Google image 'marine rack & pinion steering' and 'marine rotary steering'. Cable info such as part # and length are printed on the cable sheath somewhere along it's length.

My 2001 originally had a R&P system but I installed a new rotary system two years ago.

DaveC426913 wrote:This page has pics, descriptions and pros/cons of both.

https://www.westmarine.com/WestAdvisor/ ... l-Steering


My 2000 has r&p.

From the article in the link:

Drawbacks include many wear points and more accumulated backlash (free play or “slop”) from four or more gears meshing (compared with two typically found in reduction gear helms).

This is untrue for the most part. There are many more parts involved, but it's not a multi-stage reducer, and lash in the gears is not additive in that sense - the multiple planet gears (usually three or more) are all working in parallel; the same as one planet gear, but multiples are used to spread the load around and balance the reactions to negate them.

And lash due to wear is really a function of how well the gears are made, including heat treatment/hardness, plus lubrication. You can have a simple pinion/bull gear single-stage system with high quality gears and bearings that will develop no noticeable lash beyond what it originally had, or you can have the same system with pot metal gears with large initial lash and sloppy bearings and rapidly develop super-sloppy steering.

But the planetary system is not inherently more wear prone, or of low quality gearing with excessive lash (whatever 'excessive' means), nor does the lash between the stages add together because it's a single-stage reduction in the first place.

Just sayin'.

(Been working with planetary reducers for high hp applications for 40 year, FWIW.)

Tomfoolery wrote: (Been working with planetary reducers for high hp applications for 40 year, FWIW.)

Rare shot of Tomfoolery in action.

I've always pictured myself more like this:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg8aDZNmZBU

(Sandy Becker as Hambone on WPIX 11 or WNEW 5 in NYC, back in the early/mid 60's - my favorite kids' show back then.)

Brian,

My 26X 1996 has the first type of steering, haven't done anything to it but pour oil (gear lube) into the cable at the steering wheel end. When looking to correct sloppiness check all the connections bestween the connecting arm at the engine to the rudders and engine. You may have loose bolts, worn pivot holes etc. I have way more miles on my 96 than most owners, just guessing. Just spent the weekend manning the tiller on my D and looking forward to getting back behind the wheel.

Seems to be slop in every part of the X steering from the mechanism to the actual blades in the brackets, I have got a lot of it out simply by tightening things up and putting old CD's between the blades and the brackets but its still not optimal by any stretch of the imagination.

I have seen mods people have done to ream out the pressed holes on the steering wishbone and put nylon bushes in, this looks like it could be viable if you can get your hands on a lathe, otherwise it could be expensive

sailboatmike wrote:... putting old CD's between the blades and the brackets...

Yup. Mod #1 on SeaSaw. Tightened steering up nicely. Haven't had to replace them in 5 years.

I took this picture, I think it is rack and pinion



can someone confirm?

Yes, that is a UFLEX rack & pinion steering system.

Thanks to the outboard manual from Tom, the cable replacement when pretty smoothly.

I was even able to fine tune the gear shift to eliminate the grinding when shifting into reverse.

Also, I think I've solved the cable-bending problem that's caused these two breaks in the first place.
Every time I raised or lowered the motor, those poor cables were practically torn from their mounts on the steering bar.
A piece of wire attached just-so keeps the cable loops to a small enough radius so that they clear the steering bar.

Hahaha. Look what shows up now, when you Google for MacGregor 26x:

I used SS washers.

sailboatmike wrote:I have got a lot of it out simply by tightening things up and putting old CD's between the blades and the brackets but its still not optimal by any stretch of the imagination.