Broke Steering Cable

[c130king]

Broke the steering cable tonight. Guest turned the wheel too far with too much muscle and broke the cable. Wheel spins freely so I guess the chain has also popped off the sprocket (I assume there is a sprocket/chain inside the pedestal). But found broken cable down below.

New parts?

Thoughts/Tips/Advice on this repair?

Good news is the emergency tiller worked great. Never used it before.

Thanks,
Jim (#178 Polaris)

 

[kloudie1]

If the wheel spins freely, most likely the wire has disconnected from the chain, and the chain has rolled off the sprocket inside the pedestal.. New pieces are available (probably something like this: https://www.westmarine.com/buy/edson-marine--chain-wire-kits--P002_074_002_517?recordNum=61 )
but you may be able to re-use most parts once you see exactly what the problem is. The folks at Catalina Direct may be able to help too..

 

[c130king]

I opened the hatch down in the rear berth and saw the broken cable end. Not sure where that end was connected yet. I presume to see the sprocket you have to remove the compass...not sure if I am going to have to remove the instrument pod.

Also not sure if when the guy turned the wheel too hard what happened to the "cable stop" (not sure if that is correct term) that keeps the wheel from turning too far.

I have my maintenance guy coming over today or tomorrow and we will look it over and figure out what needs to be done.

Thanks for that link.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[kloudie1]

Maint guy will figure it out, but there should be a hard stop on the rudder sector (the piece on the rudder post that the cables pull on) to keep the rudder from turning too far and getting the chain off the sprocket inside the pedestal.. Yup, compass is going to have to come off and probably the engine control plate to get access to the chain and sprocket.. Good luck with it, Jim.

 

[Dave Groshong]

We offer Edson parts at a discount.

 

[vhoisington]

Did this repair myself on my hunter 28 a couple of years back.

SBO has the parts, Edson provides reasonably good instructions on how to disassemble the pedestal and get at all of the parts. Good opportunity to ensure everything else is in good shape and lube the internal parts of the pedestal.

Not hard, took about 2 hours to pull it a part and reassemble.

Good luck

 

[Alansails]

Let us know how it works out!

 

[shemandr]

I once had guests for a weekend on my H356. Within a hour of leaving the dock, the Mrs. ripped the piston out of the head pump. I couldn't believe it. She works for Fed Ex as a driver/deliverer and, I guess, doesn't know her own strength. Either that or she's a weightlifter who can clean and jerk her own weight. In any event, instead of anchoring we stayed in the Greenport Mitchell Park Marina for the weekend. A great thing about Greenport is that you can stay in the marina, and daysail to several anchorages, and return to the marina and it's facilities - or in my case my residence which is a two minute walk from the marina.

 

[njlarry]

There are some great videos on YouTube. Note that on most radial installations the cables cross over in the pedistal so that the steering is not reversed. Also a time to inspect the idler wheels.

 

[c130king]

I was blown away. My maintenance genius/wizard had it 95% fixed in just a few hours. Replaced both cables and associated cable hardware. Only hangup is the 4 bolts that hold on the compass and top of the pedastal...2 of them would not turn so he cut off the heads. Tomorrow he will bring a torch and heat things up to try and free those bolts. Then he will retap all 4 of those holes for the new bolts. I thought this was going to be a huge time-intensive project.

What are you recommending be inspected on the idler wheels? Crossover is correct. Wheel/rudder turn properly.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[JK_Boston_Catalina310]

Check my blog and previous posts here. I did a write up on the steering system Maintenance. Also the last issue (I think it was the last issue, but was definitely in the last year) of Mainsheet I had a write up of the cable replacement and the maintenance.

Good luck