Steering: Field Expedient

The wheel steering on my 12 year old Bullfrog 10 siezed up sometime this past off-season; probably from simple neglect. Months of prep for my summer cruise eve included service and test run of the outboard; never occurred to turn the steeering wheel! That is until the end of my first day underway.


Rowed the 8' Achilles just long enough to remind myself what a useless device that is!


So I stopped in Anacortes to consult with Skyline Marine where J.R was familiar with the system and ordered he parts, but it quickly became obvious that waiting for parts and finding schedule time for the repair was going to seriously hammer my schedule...


The Honda 20 has no provision for a traditional outboard tiller, but I noticed that if I disconnected the "slave" end of the steering rig, the motor swiveled freely. So JR fabricated an aluminum plate and I found a $10 trailer ball at Ace in Friday Harbor and we are, as they say, "good to go." Called Skyline and told them to hold on to the parts and I'll be back in September. Thanks to Skyline and especially J.R.
AlaskaProf

Looks good to me J.R.

I probably would’a made the extension longer.

Good solution.

I fixed one of those for a traveller at our dock and its a lack of lubrication on that ram, the mechanism rusts up when they are not used in the winter. Parking the motor with the ram completely enclosed, with the motor hard over will help, or just remember to exercise it during the lay-up.

Nomad Willy said:

Looks good to me J.R.

I probably would’a made the extension longer.

Click to expand...

Yup, me too, but that was the aluminum scrap he had, and you know what they say about gift horses.


Motor swivels quite freely; leverage shouldn't be a problem.


Trailer hitch is a bit overbuilt; what I really want is a "brodie knob", like my 56 BelAir had, but one makes do.

If you pull off the rubber boot on the end of the steering cable tube and squirt some good penetrant in there it may loosen up with some pushing and puling.
One of these, see link, is easy to install and might help avoid the problem in the future.
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/davi...ZqXvVNmFkTCNg6ByY9-NWhttTzVw10HgaAhdNEALw_wcB
good luck!