tight steering

A friend of mine has a 96SN that has a steering problem. The steering seems fine when the boat is not moving, but when under power (like at the end of the course), you need two hands to turn the wheel.

We disconnected the rudder and did the cable test. Both the wheel and the rudder move freely but as I said before, there really isnt any resistance until the boat is moving.

Dont really want to spend the money to replace the cable if that doesnt fix the problem.....?

Anyone seen this before or have an idea of why the wheel is so difficult to turn under power?

thanks,

My friend just bought this boat a few weeks ago....but from the looks of it, I would guess the rudder to be original. We can try to check with the PO.

What are you thinking 79?

I'd start by check out your packing and lock nuts. Mine were loose on the 96 SNOB. The rudder would spin fine one way and catch and bounce going the other way.

My cable felt alright when I took it off the rudder but i went ahead and changed it out since we'll be keeping the boat a long time. It turns smooth as silk now.

kapla wrote: is it hard to turn to both sides? mine turns fine to port but hard to starboard....

Actually it is hard to turn to either side.

I think the next move is to check the nut and packing.

93SNautique wrote: My friend just bought this boat a few weeks ago....but from the looks of it, I would guess the rudder to be original. We can try to check with the PO. What are you thinking 79?

I would say the cable is stiff from not being moved during lay-up and it being new to you. There isn't a zirc fitting to grease the rudder port there's not really a need for one, some have added them I personally feel it's waisted grease polluting the lakes as it gets washed out as soon as you take off but to each there own.

Some have removed the cable and lubed it up and it's freed up the steering. Also since it's new to you it just might be an old cable that needs to be replaced. Orignally the thought was something was changed like the rudder and that the water wasn't flowing over both sides of the rudder at the same rate due to manufacturing, think of it as a air foil where one side is humped more than the other causing a pressure differencial from one side to the other, this effect gives the feeling of hard steering to one direction vs the other.