Steering Cable - how to lubricate

[despower]

The steering on my boat is pretty stiff so I took the steering column apart to make sure everything was working properly in there. Looks like the problem is in the steering cable. I've done my best to lubricate the cable by spraying some lube where the cable goes into the jacket on both ends but it's only helped a little bit. Anyone have any tips on how to properly lubricate it? It sounds like most of the the friction is near the steering wheel.

Des

 

[wayneh]

The steering on my boat is pretty stiff so I took the steering column apart to make sure everything was working properly in there. Looks like the problem is in the steering cable. I've done my best to lubricate the cable by spraying some lube where the cable goes into the jacket on both ends but it's only helped a little bit. Anyone have any tips on how to properly lubricate it? It sounds like most of the the friction is near the steering wheel.

Des

Are you sure it's near the wheel?

There's a seal on the water end that can fail and allow water to enter. Mine got stiff there and I had to replace the cable. There's a rubber seal that covers a flexible joint between two metal pieces (see my recent post on steering cable replacement). You might be able to force enough lubricant into that joint to reach the affected part of the cable. Otherwise the cable is sealed by design and while you can grease the sliders, you can't get anything into the cable itself.

 

[despower]

Are you sure it's near the wheel?

There's a seal on the water end that can fail and allow water to enter. Mine got stiff there and I had to replace the cable. There's a rubber seal that covers a flexible joint between two metal pieces (see my recent post on steering cable replacement). You might be able to force enough lubricant into that joint to reach the affected part of the cable. Otherwise the cable is sealed by design and while you can grease the sliders, you can't get anything into the cable itself.

Yes - I'm sure it's near the wheel because I hear a rubbing noise near that location. The cable termination near the jet was also stiff, but I managed to force enough lube up there to get rid of that friction. The rubber seal was still intact there, but I can see how water can easily migrate up there and cause corrosion.

I've been doing some Googling and there are various YouTube videos that suggest how you can force lubricant into the cable using a compressor, some rubber tubing and some clamps. The pressure will force lubricant though the small gap in the sliders and down the length of the cable. I'm going to try this and I'll post some pictures of the result. A replacement cable isn't expensive (well, depends on your perspective of course - it's about the same as 2 tanks of gas here in Canada), but a set of fittings and tubing is less than $20, so I'm going to try that first. And I don't have to wait on the parts to arrive. Boating season is unreasonably short here, and waiting a few weeks for a part can be excruciating.

 

[wayneh]

Yes - I'm sure it's near the wheel because I hear a rubbing noise near that location. The cable termination near the jet was also stiff, but I managed to force enough lube up there to get rid of that friction. The rubber seal was still intact there, but I can see how water can easily migrate up there and cause corrosion.

I've been doing some Googling and there are various YouTube videos that suggest how you can force lubricant into the cable using a compressor, some rubber tubing and some clamps. The pressure will force lubricant though the small gap in the sliders and down the length of the cable. I'm going to try this and I'll post some pictures of the result. A replacement cable isn't expensive (well, depends on your perspective of course - it's about the same as 2 tanks of gas here in Canada), but a set of fittings and tubing is less than $20, so I'm going to try that first. And I don't have to wait on the parts to arrive. Boating season is unreasonably short here, and waiting a few weeks for a part can be excruciating.

Makes sense. If it's moving and otherwise mechanically OK, getting some lube in there ought to buy you a fair amount of extended service. It'll be interesting to see how forcing lube up the sliders will go. If you have a good seal on the outside with the plastic, I can definitely see that it could work.