Hard steering on 93 sport nautique

I bought a 1993 sport nautique from a local dealer. Being as I live 120 miles from dealer and drive long haul truck I had to break the first rule of buying a used boat by not sea testing. I did run it and check every thing else and all seemed good however when I got her home to local lake I found the steering was super hard at speed especially to the right. Dealer said it's supposed to be a little stiff and probably not cable as it's only when at speed. They said bring her back and the will check. I've driven both 92 malibu and 04 moomba as well as read many posts here and stiff is the last thing steering should be. Any thoughts?

I have a 92 sport that had the same issue. I replaced the cable and repacked the rudder shaft and greased everything really good. It helped a ton. Still a little harder than I expected but not bad at all.

desertskier wrote: I guess it depends on what you mean by stiff. Because of the direction of the prop rotation the boat will always want to go to port. So it takes more force to turn to starboard. .

Plus 1
Rodney,
What was your previous boat(s)? Were they inboards?

You need to replace the cable and maybe helm if it’s that hard. Mine was nowhere close to that hard when I replaced it.

That seems to the consensus here that and rudder repack and grease. I kinda get what dealer said about if it was cable it would be hard when trailers as well but will see what they say next week.

That’s the beauty of this site. I’ve owned our Nautique for 4 years now and this site has saved me more money and time than I could ever count. There is a search function on here but sometimes it’s easier to search the site via google. Congrats on the boat. We love our sport.

+4

Replace the cable....and while you are at it, you can properly lube everything up.

If you get a lot of water in your bilge, that can contribute to premature cable failure. The voice of experience here...

JQ