Some time ago I noticed that a seal on my original steering cable had failed.
Swivel seal for steering cable
Steering was starting to show odd behavior as the cable became exposed to the elements and bent a bit. So I finally bit the bullet and ordered a new cable. I learned later that the original was made by Teleflex and had OEM #204390144, and I believe the mfg. no. is 79811.
Before I knew any of that, I found this SBC cable on Amazon that is said to be comparable (and yes, it fit fine). It was $170 but has since gone up like everything else.
I have the service manual and read over the steering cable replacement procedure to prepare myself. It sounded a bit complicated but in retrospect it was not. It took me several days, a few hours at a time, to get it all done but I could probably do it in a couple hours now that I've been through it.
The first hurdle was removing the steering wheel, to enable removing the "helm". Seadoo sells a special tool that's ridiculously priced and nearly impossible to find anyway. I already had a steering wheel puller, but it didn't fit. I had to run to Home Depot to get some low-profile nuts to slip behind the steering wheel. Bolts from the puller could then engage those nuts. The wheel came off easily once that was done. Three (11mm?) bolts behind the wheel hold the helm to the boat. You need an extension to reach them but fortunately I had that in the box.
Pulling the old cable out the cockpit was more challenging than I expected, in part because my old cable had become stiff near the stern because of water intrusion. I had to cut a cable tie that held the cable in place. This pinch point was roughly under the aft end of the starboard (driver side) carb cover. With several iterations on pulling from the cockpit and jiggling around in the engine compartment, the cable eventually came free.
I had taken great care to tie strong string to the water end of the cable to use to pull the new cable back through. I dutifully tied it to the new cable and began the process of routing it back through. It was quickly clear that the string was useless. The stiffness of the cable itself allowed it to be pushed from the cockpit end and basically find its own path to where it could be grabbed in the engine compartment. Once in hand in the engine compartment, it was fairly easy to re-route it where the old one had been. The final challenge is getting the end of the cable through the hole in the hull. The string was useless for this and eventually the easiest solution was to stand on your head in the engine compartment and use elbow grease the bend the cable and jab it through the little patch of daylight in the hull. I applied all sealant to the outside. I would have liked to get some on the inside of the hull but it's just too hard to get in there. I used this stuff instead of the Adseal in the manual.
Another hurdle during reassembly was that I dropped a nut and it fell into the hull in front of the cockpit. It's one of those moments when your heart sinks and you realize how easy it would have been to avoid the problem, but you didn't. I have a magnetic tool and one of those grabbers, but there's simply no way to recover something that falls into the gap of doom. It was the nut that holds the cable to the helm, and unfortunately is "rare". It's a fine-thread, stainless steel, nylon-insert lock nut and I had to order it from Amazon and wait a couple days to continue. Seadoo 211100024.
Reattaching the assembled helm (steering assembly with attached low-speed steering throttle cables) to the hull was not easy. You have to get those little bolts, on the end of an extension, threaded into the helm, through three lined-up holes. Holding the helm in place and getting that first bolt started is really a pain. Having another pair of hands would have really made a difference here.
To reassemble, I set all adjustable components to the middle of their adjustment range. I had examined the old installation and this was roughly what had been done originally. The end result is that it is very nearly dead on. I've done zero re-alignment of anything so far and it's already acceptable. I need to pull it slightly left to about 11 o'clock to get dead center steering but that's really not a problem. I may adjust it to 12 o'clock if/when I'm in the mood.
The new cable fits fine and the net result is smooth-as-silk, reliable steering has been restored! And there's still boating season left.
Swivel seal for steering cable
Steering was starting to show odd behavior as the cable became exposed to the elements and bent a bit. So I finally bit the bullet and ordered a new cable. I learned later that the original was made by Teleflex and had OEM #204390144, and I believe the mfg. no. is 79811.
Before I knew any of that, I found this SBC cable on Amazon that is said to be comparable (and yes, it fit fine). It was $170 but has since gone up like everything else.
I have the service manual and read over the steering cable replacement procedure to prepare myself. It sounded a bit complicated but in retrospect it was not. It took me several days, a few hours at a time, to get it all done but I could probably do it in a couple hours now that I've been through it.
The first hurdle was removing the steering wheel, to enable removing the "helm". Seadoo sells a special tool that's ridiculously priced and nearly impossible to find anyway. I already had a steering wheel puller, but it didn't fit. I had to run to Home Depot to get some low-profile nuts to slip behind the steering wheel. Bolts from the puller could then engage those nuts. The wheel came off easily once that was done. Three (11mm?) bolts behind the wheel hold the helm to the boat. You need an extension to reach them but fortunately I had that in the box.
Pulling the old cable out the cockpit was more challenging than I expected, in part because my old cable had become stiff near the stern because of water intrusion. I had to cut a cable tie that held the cable in place. This pinch point was roughly under the aft end of the starboard (driver side) carb cover. With several iterations on pulling from the cockpit and jiggling around in the engine compartment, the cable eventually came free.
I had taken great care to tie strong string to the water end of the cable to use to pull the new cable back through. I dutifully tied it to the new cable and began the process of routing it back through. It was quickly clear that the string was useless. The stiffness of the cable itself allowed it to be pushed from the cockpit end and basically find its own path to where it could be grabbed in the engine compartment. Once in hand in the engine compartment, it was fairly easy to re-route it where the old one had been. The final challenge is getting the end of the cable through the hole in the hull. The string was useless for this and eventually the easiest solution was to stand on your head in the engine compartment and use elbow grease the bend the cable and jab it through the little patch of daylight in the hull. I applied all sealant to the outside. I would have liked to get some on the inside of the hull but it's just too hard to get in there. I used this stuff instead of the Adseal in the manual.
Another hurdle during reassembly was that I dropped a nut and it fell into the hull in front of the cockpit. It's one of those moments when your heart sinks and you realize how easy it would have been to avoid the problem, but you didn't. I have a magnetic tool and one of those grabbers, but there's simply no way to recover something that falls into the gap of doom. It was the nut that holds the cable to the helm, and unfortunately is "rare". It's a fine-thread, stainless steel, nylon-insert lock nut and I had to order it from Amazon and wait a couple days to continue. Seadoo 211100024.
Reattaching the assembled helm (steering assembly with attached low-speed steering throttle cables) to the hull was not easy. You have to get those little bolts, on the end of an extension, threaded into the helm, through three lined-up holes. Holding the helm in place and getting that first bolt started is really a pain. Having another pair of hands would have really made a difference here.
To reassemble, I set all adjustable components to the middle of their adjustment range. I had examined the old installation and this was roughly what had been done originally. The end result is that it is very nearly dead on. I've done zero re-alignment of anything so far and it's already acceptable. I need to pull it slightly left to about 11 o'clock to get dead center steering but that's really not a problem. I may adjust it to 12 o'clock if/when I'm in the mood.
The new cable fits fine and the net result is smooth-as-silk, reliable steering has been restored! And there's still boating season left.
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