Loss of right turn at high speed?

[bobbob911]

This past weekend I had my new-to-me 2004 Optimax Islandia out and I noticed that, at close to WOT, I seemed to have very little ability to turn right. Left turn seemed normal. At lower speeds I seemed to have full turning power. Once I pulled it out of water I confirmed there appeared to be nothing clogging the impeller, and the jet nozzle had full mechanical range of motion.

When I googled about this issue I found some link suggesting this is somewhat endemic to jet drives:

https://jetboaters.net/threads/steering-to-right-vs-steering-to-the-left.5957/

Any thoughts? Is there something to this?

 

[Coastiejoe]

It is often a bad cable housing. Left turns collapse the housing so it's no issue. Right turns open the housing so the housing moves and the cable doesn't. Check the ends very well. Have someone hold the nozzle and steer with the wheel. I've seen the retaining hardware break and that allows the cable to flex. Results in the same issue.

 

[bobbob911]

Thanks for the quick response, I'll look at that ASAP. Would that be a sign of imminent complete steering failure?

 

[bobbob911]

Oh look, here's an older thread describing the same problem:

https://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?56044-2004-Islandia-Can-t-turn-right-at-high-speeds

 

[bobbob911]

Yup, that's exactly what happened - I pulled away the protective boot and the rigid tube (is it called a shiv?) had come loose. In fact, there was obvious previous repair work done on the flange that holds the tube so this is not the first time it's come loose.

There didn't seem to be any damage to the cable so I got the tube back in and crimped as best as I could. Should hold nicely for now but clearly it's time to replace it. There was a hole in the boot so water is getting in there and there is some superficial corrosion happening already.

One other thing - the steering cable was connected to the jet nozzle by a Clevis pin and ring ding. It's completely rusted so I strongly suspect this is not an OEM part. Is this the right part to use? Seems like the ring ding might get in the way from time to time?

Thanks!