Struggling with drum and pulley steering

[mgsolakis]

Thanks for all the help everyone, I followed everyones advice and got it right today. Much appreciated, I hope to have it out on the lake for a test run tomorrow.

[Chris]

Some interesting info in this thread. I’ve been doing cable steering for 14 years now. That may be a very short time compared to some, but it’s my entire motor boating time. (never had a boat newer than 1956).

I have never before heard that there should only be ONE spring in the cable setup! This is very intriguing to me. I’m curious, is this "old news" to most of you? Or are there others that have been always running a dual spring (one on each side of the motor)?

If only one is best, which side would be best for this? Left or right? (thinking engine torque here).

[nj-boatbuilder57]

I was going to post the question as well, but didn’t……but I’m compelled now to ask the same: why just one spring? "Hazardous fishtailing?" Seems implausible.

If you google "boat cable pulley steering images", you get a lot of diagrams of (non OMC) cable layouts, and virtually all of them show 2 springs. What’s up with that?

[vintin]

I can see where two springs could make an oscillating circuit and maybe cause a little engine and steering wobble as resonant frequencies are excited. With one spring half of the sine wave is damped. Thinking about it makes it seem as no springs at all would be better. Movement of the motor cost speed and efficiency. It all may be a moot point. I’ll have to sit in the back of a friends boat and give the system a good watch sometime. Tilting and trimming takes various lengths of cable in this system unless the geometries are perfect and mine never are.

[auldscott]

This could become something akin to the which gear lube to use? question, with no one right answer. I have always used two springs, one on each cable end, but I did some extensive upfitting this year on a 14′ aluminum side console boat with a 45 cid Evinrude 40 and discovered that having two springs resulted in soft, vague steering response. I removed the spring on the high tension side (flywheel and propeller torque) and added a thimble in the cable loop, effectively removing any slack or spring action. It made a big difference. Of course, the cable routing was such that a single spring could compensate when the motor was turned or tilted.

[Chris]

I almost feel like I should make a brand new thread for just this subject of one spring or two. But I thought I would post my results here.

I put a lot of thought into which way the motor wants to steer the boat at high speed, and I decided that the right side should have the spring removed. As an experiment I just used a heavy duty zip tie to attach the cable and to the boat, laying over the top of the spring. I have to say, I am very very pleased with the outcome. In order to keep the boat going straight at high speed I would have to turn the wheel at least at a 45 degree. It was a big difference between going slow and going fast as to where the wheel was at. Now, with the zip tie holding the spring from stretching, it is a world of difference. Hardly any change at all in steering input between high-speed and low-speed.

As much as I like to tinker and experiment with things on my boats and my motors, I’m really surprised that I’ve never actually tried this. It just never even crossed my mind how good it could actually be.

[stanley]

Right side as in starboard?

[Chris]

quote Stanley:

Right side as in starboard?

Yes.

[garry-in-michigan]

You can Email me your pictures & I will post them for you. . . 😉

[Author]

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