Steering Bar on 26M

[Compromise]

Does anyone have a solution to this?
Pictured is the steering bar turned all the way to starboard, you can see the hole is not big enough for both the bar and the nut to fit through thereby inhibiting the full range for steering.......

[Paul S]

doesnt look like it is installed correctly... or is the wrong length. Something is strange.

The nut and bolt should never get that far

[TAM]

Ours seems to work the same way. Didn't think much about it until your post. Steering seems to be fine/similar to either side. There's been a couple of times I could have used a little more, but that was likely too tight on the genoa. Given the alignment of the rudders with the motor, it appears to be correct.

[c130king]

Is the link for the pic messed up? I can't see the pic. Could one of the mods or Compromise fix the link?

I am interested in this as I have issues with my steering bar as well. But my issue is the interference between the threaded bolt on the steering bar and the steering linkage arms attached to the motor, when the motor is disconnected from the steering bar and locked in place.

Cheers,
Jim

[NiceAft]

Jim,

Thank you, thank you, thank you

I have been sitting here trying to pull up this link, and not getting anywhere. I was about to post my frustration when I scrolled down, and see that you have already posted yours.

Ray

[Compromise]

Sorry Guys, believe it or not I was picture posting virgin until this one.
I reloaded it, hopefully you can now view it...

[Compromise]

The nut and bolt should never get that far

Actually that's the problem, to get full range for steering all the way that nut and bolt need to go in board about another inch or two.
I thought about just widening the hole but thought there might be an easier way. A better system to link everything possibly?

[c130king]

Picture looks good now. Mine looks very similar to that except maybe my nut/bolt is more vertical than horizontal.

But I have no problem with getting full range of turn. And the nut/bolt do not go into the fiberglass of the transom...don't think they even go as far as yours does. Not sure why you think yours must go further. Maybe you have a problem with the two linked arms connected to the motor. Could the outboard one be shortened a little allowing you to turn further to starboard?

My issue is when I disconnect the motor from the steering bar and attach it to that nut that is halfway to the ballast valve handle. The motor is centered, or pretty close to centered but when I turn to port the steering bar comes out and that nut/bolt hits where those two arms are connected and binds up...I can't turn fully to port with the motor secured and in the "down" position. If the motor is raised the linked arms are clear.

I need to figure out a better way to secure the motor in a centered position but keep those two linked arms out of the way when the motor is lowered.

Jim

[Hardcrab]

On my set up, the motor link pins on the aft side of the arm, not the forward side as in your picture.
It makes for a straighter shot to the motor, with more turning throw to be had for port turns as the link will be effectivly longer.
Easy enough to do to.
Turn the arm pin around and see what you get.

As far as the total throw goes, mine too is limited on starboard turns as shown.
My link pin also contacts the wall as the steering stop.
I just never, never force the turn beyond this "soft" stop.

I played with my set up for hours/days to get everything right.
Lots of patience and thought and manufacturing of stuff.
I made an adjustable rudder "tie rod" to cure misalignment, and moved the park pin stud from the factory location in the
fiberglass to an engine mounted park pin device.
(My 90hp somewhat "torque kicks" when it fires up/shuts down, straining the hull mounted park pin stud far beyond my liking).
I had to redrill hole locations in the SS engine link pieces to get good results.
Think twice, drill once.

The end result is dead parallel rudders with a perfectly straight ahead motor when connected/pinned or when
disconnected/ pinned.

For me it was worth all the effort.

[c130king]

Hardcrab,

Do you think you would be able to post a picture of your "park pin stud" in the new location? I am considering something like that just don't know what that something is just yet.

And I will recheck when I get back to my boat but I am pretty sure my nut/bolt does not hit the side wall...think I get full travel before they make contact.

Thanks,
Jim

[Hardcrab]

c130king,

I don't have any way to post a picture yet so I'll try to explain my concept.

Go up and look at Comp's picture.
See his upper motor attaching through bolt.
See that open space in the drain well above the engine bolt.
There is the basis for my solution.

First, I made a "mounting plate" that spans the distance to capture both upper engine bolts to keep it rigid.
This is mounted inside the drain well and gives me the chance to drill and mount anything to it.
No further holes in the hull anywhere.
My existing engine bolts were more than long enough to capture this added thickness.

My first plate was 1/4" aluminum plate about 3" x 15", drilled to fit the existing engine bolt span.
It corroded to much after 2.5 years, so I've just gone to a WalMart, poly something, $10 cutting board for raw material.
Prolly 5/16" thick. Won't corrode and is strong stuff.

Then I hacksawed a piece of 3" aluminum angle about 3" long, positioned, drilled, then mounted on my "mounting plate" to give a flat horizontal mounting location slightly to port and above the engine bolt in that empty space.
This new horiz surface is slightly below the same level as the hull there.
I used countersunk screws on the back of the "mounting plate" to the "angle plate" so as to not interfere with anything.
Relocate the factory stud, or make a new one, and correctly locate and install on this horiz "angle plate".

It is closer to the engine, so a new hole will have to be correctly drilled in the factory SS link piece so that everything will line up
with the engine dead ahead when it gets pinned.

So, the factory hole is used when connected, the new hole for when pinned straight ahead.

All starting torques are kept on the engine itself and not transferred to the hull.

Change the specifics as you need, but this is at least one basic theory and method.

[Boblee]

If you want to turn your motor more in relation to the rudders you can move the point where the steering arm attaches to the motor, by moving it closer to the motor it will turn more but put more stress on the pivot point and be harder to steer, by moving it further away it will turn less and be easier.

The amount of travel on the shaft is controlled by where the cable from the wheel attaches to the steering assembly, so even if you enlarged the hole you would probably have to alter that too but to check you could remove the bolt and see if it would actually be able to travel more each way or how far.

If you then put an auto pilot on you will need to limit the amount of wheel turn to match that but after playing with the whole setup mine is nearly back to where it was.
Bob

[delevi]

This setup is the same on my boat, 05 I actually noticed right away and the dealer said that that's just how they're built. There is approximately 3-5 degrees more steerage to port vs starboard. Then, the motor arm has nowhere to go. Interesting thing is, it seems the rudder angle is the same in either direction when turned to the max, but not the motor angle, which has more turning angle to port (arm fully extended to starboard.) Anyway, this doesn't create a problem (in my opinion) with one exception. When going in reverse, it would be nice to get those few degrees of steerage.

Leon

[Terry]

How is it that some boats got such a gunny-sack, piece of crap, useless steering linkage setup? Like in the picture.
On mine the the SS tube that telescopes out that hole is long enough to go all the way starboard or port without the bolt butting up against the fiberglass. Furthermore I dont have a threaded bolt with a nut for connecting the linkage from the engine to the SS tube, nor do I have a threaded bolt with a nut for parking the linkage off the tube. It is just a smooth tall bullet shaped post(no threads) with a hole drilled near the top of the bullet on each post. I use one of those quick release pins that have a little ball bearing on the tip to poke through the post hole to hold the linkage in place. I can switch from a parked engine to a connected engine in about two seconds.
If there ever was a must do minor mod this is one of them, get rid of those goofy threaded posts and have them replaced with what I just described. My bad what poor excuse for an engine linkage set-up, it is in-excusable.

[Compromise]

How is it that some boats got such a gunny-sack, piece of crap, useless steering linkage setup? Like in the picture.
On mine the the SS tube that telescopes out that hole is long enough to go all the way starboard or port without the bolt butting up against the fiberglass. Furthermore I dont have a threaded bolt with a nut for connecting the linkage from the engine to the SS tube, nor do I have a threaded bolt with a nut for parking the linkage off the tube. It is just a smooth tall bullet shaped post(no threads) with a hole drilled near the top of the bullet on each post. I use one of those quick release pins that have a little ball bearing on the tip to poke through the post hole to hold the linkage in place. I can switch from a parked engine to a connected engine in about two seconds.
If there ever was a must do minor mod this is one of them, get rid of those goofy threaded posts and have them replaced with what I just described. My bad what poor excuse for an engine linkage set-up, it is in-excusable.

An obvious 'Hot Button' here Terry

Do you have a picture of your set up?
WHy do they keep going back and forth on what they supply, mine's an '07.