05 Utopia steering trouble

[SnoopyDoo]

2005 Utopia 205se with mercury 3L V6 and M2 jet drive.
Boat will not turn right at speed over 4k rpm.
I found this very disturbing at the time as I was quickly heading towards a boat hoist on the left side of the river.
Reverse was very efficient and ducked the nose under just like in the videos.
My wife was not very happy but she's alive.
Not withstanding the above It does still turn left at speed.
Turns ok at slow speed both left and right.
The nozzle is properly attached to the nozzel assembly and is not damaged.
The steering cable arm on the nozzle is not damaged.
Nozzle turns left and right when parked on the hoist.
The steering cable boot is not attached to the point the cable exits through a sleeve bracketed to the drive housing.
You can draw the boot to the back and expose the steering cable.
I gather this is probably bad for the cable.
There is a flared sleeve inside the boot that the steering cable runs through.
This flared sleeve can be pulled in and out of the boot reasonably freely.
The flared sleeve looks like it was at one point press fitted to the sleeve bracketed to the drive housing.
Pics attached.
Any thoughts? This one is new to me.

 

[Tim75]

2005 Utopia 205se with mercury 3L V6 and M2 jet drive.
Boat will not turn right at speed over 4k rpm.
I found this very disturbing at the time as I was quickly heading towards a boat hoist on the left side of the river.
Reverse was very efficient and ducked the nose under just like in the videos.
My wife was not very happy but she's alive.
Not withstanding the above It does still turn left at speed.
Turns ok at slow speed both left and right.
The nozzle is properly attached to the nozzel assembly and is not damaged.
The steering cable arm on the nozzle is not damaged.
Nozzle turns left and right when parked on the hoist.
The steering cable boot is not attached to the point the cable exits through a sleeve bracketed to the drive housing.
You can draw the boot to the back and expose the steering cable.
I gather this is probably bad for the cable.
There is a flared sleeve inside the boot that the steering cable runs through.
This flared sleeve can be pulled in and out of the boot reasonably freely.
The flared sleeve looks like it was at one point press fitted to the sleeve bracketed to the drive housing.
Pics attached.
Any thoughts? This one is new to me.

You have discovered the reason Mercury specifies replacement of rubber boots (steering and shift) as yearly maintenance items.

Your cable is shot. Dead.
The tail end sleeve is supposed to be crimped so it can wiggle a small amount, but not slide apart. The moving cable should be smooth and a little greasy. Not rusty.

Your cable needs to be replaced. It is not a special SeaDoo part. Just a heavy duty control cable. Several brands available. One is Teleflex. Avail. from ebay or Amazon. About $150. You will need to measure its length. Don't forget new boots. About $35 more. The job should take about 2-4 hours.

 

[SnoopyDoo]

You have discovered the reason Mercury specifies replacement of rubber boots (steering and shift) as yearly maintenance items.

Your cable is shot. Dead.
The tail end sleeve is supposed to be crimped so it can wiggle a small amount, but not slide apart. The moving cable should be smooth and a little greasy. Not rusty.

Your cable needs to be replaced. It is not a special SeaDoo part. Just a heavy duty control cable. Several brands available. One is Teleflex. Avail. from ebay or Amazon. About $150. You will need to measure its length. Don't forget new boots. About $35 more. The job should take about 2-4 hours.

Oh goody. Just what I wanted to do mid season.
Not seeing any threads on this procedure.
Any help in here on the process.

 

[Ozweego]

Sorry to hear about your pending mid season repair Snoopy. I have the same boat (new to me this year). As soon as I read your post and Tim's response i immediately checked the status of mine. Fortunately it looks normal.

Tim, can you provide or direct me to the part number of the rubber boots? I want to get them ordered as an off season maintenance item I plan to get done in my garage.

Thanks and best of luck Snoopy

 

[Tim75]

Sorry to hear about your pending mid season repair Snoopy. I have the same boat (new to me this year). As soon as I read your post and Tim's response i immediately checked the status of mine. Fortunately it looks normal.

Tim, can you provide or direct me to the part number of the rubber boots? I want to get them ordered as an off season maintenance item I plan to get done in my garage.

Thanks and best of luck Snoopy

You can order from your local Merc dealer or ebay or amazon. You will need the serial number from the metal plug in the pump housing just above the the shift cable on the back end of the pump.

You cam look up part numbers from any online Merc dealer.

 

[Ozweego]

Thanks

 

[SnoopyDoo]

Steering update.

I had time yesterday to look at my steering cable with the boat out of the water and the back end jacked up so I don't have to crawl on the ground to get at it.

My first comment will be whoever designed this system should not be allowed to be called an engineer.

Basically the back part of the steering cable assembly comes through the hull and runs along the side of the jet pump. Just before the stator assembly it runs through a sleeve that brackets the cable to the pump housing. This keeps it from moving about when the steering is turned. The sleeve has been crimped in 2 places about a quarter inch from the opening. The 2 crimps are set about 3/16 away from each other.
The steering cable exits the bracket sleeve and travels through an end sleeve. This end sleeve has a slightly smaller diameter than the bracketed sleeve and is about 8 inches long. ( the end sleeve is a light stainless steel. ) The cable travels through the end sleeve. At the end of the cable is about a 4 inch, stiff 3/16 inch metal rod that attaches to a swivel fitting. This bolts to the nozzel arm. See my prior pics. They show the setup.

The problem is this end sleeve.
The end sleeve has been flared at one end. This flared end fits into the bracketed fitting and rests between the 2 crimps to keep it from popping out. It can move in the fitting forward and back to the limit of the crimps allowing movement to swing in about a 4 inch arc as the cable moves in and out. This sleeve is what keeps the steering cable from flexing when it's pushing the nozzel for what would be a right hand turn.

The only thing holding the end sleeve in place is the flare. So my schooling told me that metal on metal movement produces wear. The flared end wore down over time, got smaller, and pulled out of the bracketed fitting. When the fitting separated the cable flexed and could not push the nozzle for a right turn. (At 4k rpm. Or about 30 mph). At lower sped the cable did move the nozzel but probably not efficiently.

On the end of the cable is a protective boot. Made similar to a boot over a car CV joint. It looks pretty robust and was in good shape. I've never replaced the boots on steering or drive cables. But i tour in fresh water only. I know what salt water does to boats and fittings.

Knowledgeable minds would expect the boot to clamp to the end of the cable just before the swivel and stretch to the bracketed fitting to keep water out of the system. It doesn't. Not on my 05 anyways. Even if you wanted to, it's not long enough to stretch that far. The end is clamped just b4 the swivel and the other end is clamped, loosely, around the end sleeve with a removable cable tie. The boot rides along the sleeve to a point about 4 inches from the bracketed sleeve. Where the 2 sleeves connect at that flared fitting there is no protective cover and water can enter the cable assembly. There is no way to lubricate the fitting and if you did it wouldn't last very long given the turbulence down there. However the winding is coated and metal cable is not exposed. I assume further up there is a protective gromet keeping water out of the sheath.

Temporary repair.
Not being one to allow minor adversity hold me up I was able to drift the end sleeve back into the bracket sleeve. I then made a clamp and crimped the bracket sleeve to a point it holds the end sleeve securely in place. The end sleeve moves as it should and will not pull back out. I will order a new cable and install it after boating season. I am quite confident my repair is more secure than original.

One should summarize this is a pretty rinky dink system for such an important job. Who needs steering at 30 mph anyways. The only thing that averted disaster was a quick hand on the throttle and decades of boating experience. But it did hold up for 16 years. But I don't use or abuse my boat that much so pox on them.

I would be interest to hear if this is a normal steering set up and strongly recommend inspection of this part during annual decommissioning.