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Do I have to remove motor to change steering cable? 2013 Montauk 150
I recently bought a barely used 2013 Montauk 150 that had been stored inside, under 50 hours. The steering was tight so I thought I could quickly remove and clean cable shaft but there is absolutely no way to to remove the cable that I can see without removing the motor. I tried to pull it out but the shaft will not make the turn down to the boot at the transom. I was able to clean it a little and put some quicksilver marine grease which made it better but not perfect. When I removed the linkage the motor itself was not as easy to move as I thought it should be. I wrongly thought the grease fitting on the pivot tube greased the inner tube but apparently it does not as no grease was put into the inner tube but it did on the outer section.
Do I have to remove motor to change steering cable?
Yes - A friend just went through the same situation.
When you do so, correct the situation permanently, or it will continuously happen.
Buy a "Steersman" grease jerk nut to replace the Mercury nut, and remove the worn out seal INSIDE the Mercury tilt tube, and DO NOT REPLACE. The Steersman has it's own seal, easily serviced. The mercury seal design is the source of the problem - an unserviceable seal. Do a search here for "Steersman" and you can get complete instructions and information on the situation.
You can see the finished installation on this Mercury 150 (the silver nut on the port side)
It would be a "wear and tear" situation, so warranty would not apply.
All grease o-ring seals wear out, but in this case, because they placed the seal inside the tilt tube, it is very difficult to service and nobody ever does it. Eventually the dirt, salt and crud gets in there and steering cable ram seizes up. The only way to service this situation as is, is to disconnect the link arm, unscrew the steering cable on the entry (starboard) side, and pull it back far enough to clean both the ram and the inside of tilt tube. And usually you can't do this without having the engine removed from the boat. Hence this problem. With the Steersman, you can do all of this without having to pull the steering cable back or remove the engine.
The grease "plug" inside the nut does a good job of keeping crud out and grease in.
Service is easy. Just unscrew the Steersman nut, disconnect the link arm at the end of the steering ram, and slide the nut off. It can be cleaned and new seal installed. The extended steering ram can also be cleaned. You can work new grease back into the tilt tube easily, since there is no o-ring seal to prevent if from going into the tube. Then re-assemble and punp the grease plug full. At any time it is easy to add greae to the tilt tube simply by unscrewing the Steersman, are adding grease to the ram and tube by working the steering back and forth. It's not even necessary to unbolt the link arm if the seal does not need replacing.
With this system, and occasional maintenance, your cable steering will never freeze up and last for years and years, always working smoothly..
I installed my new Steersman grease nut today. It was simple to install. I loosened the other end of the steering cable and pumped grease threw it until it looked clean.
The steering works much better now. I can turn the steering wheel with one finger, with a lot of effort.
How tight should the motor be, moving it back and forth without the steering cable attached? It takes a lot of effort to turn the motor on my 60HP but my old Mercury 175 is so loose it is almost sloppy.
