Trying to sort out steering….

[frankr]

quote amuller:

Spent the afternoon on this. It will be usable–motor can steer and tilt. But it’s not thrilling. Roughly measured: The travel lock to lock of the steering arm hole is about 10.75. Travel of the steering push-pull cable is about 8.75. So you were right (not that I would expect otherwise!) about the “reduced steering arc.” It’s about 80 percent. Is this intentional on the part of Teleflex, etc?? Now, tilt tube steering is a much cleaner setup, but does it cure the limited travel?

Thru the tilt tube / push pull steering was a Mercury thing, way back when. They called it Ride-Guide. I don’t know if they had a patent on it or not, but the issue is that it was designed for Merc motors and it took other mfrs a long time to adapt to it and get it right (for their motors). But Merc set the standards.

[amuller]

What year(s) did Mercury implement the Ride-Guide tilt tube steering? Looks to me as if OMC implemented it, at least on the big motors, in 1973

The cable on this 1970 Crestliner seems like the right length for a centered (tilt-tube) installation but too long for a side mounted setup. Of course, it might not be the original cable. But this, and extra holes in the transom, makes me wonder if this boat might have originally been rigged with a Mercury.

[amuller]

quote labrador guy:

My first effort was not the best. The ball part worked fine but the thing needed some up and down movement. I added the bolt that you see at the transom it allows the the anchor to move up and down as the motor is tilted. It does work good so far!

dale

That’s essentially the problem my rig has: The bracket (pivot) has little vertical movement, leading to too much up-down of the cable as the motor is tilted.

[frankr]

quote amuller:

What year(s) did Mercury implement the Ride-Guide tilt tube steering? Looks to me as if OMC implemented it, at least on the big motors, in 1973

I expected a Merc guy would have spoken up on this, but guess not. I really don’t know when Merc came out with their Ride Guide,, but I would say back in the 1950’s

EDIT: With my limited knowledge and information, it looks like Mark 55-1 had a tilt bolt, and Mark 55-2 & up had a tilt tube. Whatever that means.

EDIT: For whatever it’s worth, I found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NtazIeq0RY

[dan-in-tn]

Well I’m not a Merc guy, but had a 1956 Mk 55 & it had the tilt tube steering. That’s about as far back as I see on MarineEngine.com. Steering amount is limited by push/pull steering, but as horsepower went up ( & speed ) less amount of steering was needed or allowed? Not sure how to say it, but safety wise too much was considered bad. With quicker helm action & reverse gear parking a boat at a dock could be done in a hurry.
I have run into this Whaler problem on motors with tilt tubes. Bowed transom was a weird idea. I used a V-6 dual steering setup (T&R old style clamp on) to put the tube out in front of the motor to clear the transom. Not the best, but only way to do I could figure. In a 13′ Whaler with a 25hp still more steering angle than you ever need. Tilted well. I think FrankR said it best. When you are doing these steering things you need to think about all the safety possibilities? Lots of liability for you as well as others!
The motor needs to be able to tilt up in case of striking a submerged object. Limiting that ability is dangerous. JMHO

Dan in TN

[amuller]

Thanks for all the input. I have it working after much farting around with the location of the holding bracket. That is to say, it steers lock to lock, and tilts, without anything hitting or binding up. I think a nicer, better looking job could be made with a "tilt tube" bracketed on the inside of the transom, but if I want the boat to see water this season it has to wait. (Or maybe I’ll come to my senses and use a later model motor with a tilt tube, a sensible ignition system, and mechanical shift.)

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