loose stearing

[bhulme]

Is there a way of tightening up the stearing responsiveness from my stearing wheel to the rudder. I went below in the aft berth and took off the cover of the steering mechnism but have now idea how take out some of the slack. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Tom Soko]

Cable Tightening

If you follow the steering cables down from the pedestal, they turn around a pair of "idler pulleys" and go back to an aluminum "drive wheel" which is attached to the rudder post. Most likely the cables go 3/4 of the way around the drive wheel and end in an eye-bolt. By tightening up on the nuts on the eye bolt(s), you can take some slack out of the system. If I remember correctly, each eye bolt has 2 nuts, one to do the adjusting and one to lock it in place. Good Luck.Tom.

 

[Rod Worrell]

Stay On Course

While you tighten the two eye bolts as Tom suggested, you will want to match the tightening process for both cables in order to keep your rudder centered as it is assumed to be right now. The aluminum quadrant on your rudder post is probably 12" in diameter. Edson has recommendations on how much give the cables should have when everything is tensioned just right. Seems like it was no more than 1/2" of give when measured between the coupling where the cable comes out of the bracket near the quadrant and where the cable begins to wind around the quadrant. Give Edson a call. My experience is that they are extremely helpful and very responsive. They can fax or email you additional instructions. While your working down below, it is also recommended to routinely lubricate the cables (if yours travel through a larger hose-like sheathe between the bottom of the pedestal and the couplings back by the quadrant, anyway).Fair winds.

 

[Howard Morton]

A different Edson installation

There are apparently at least two different Edson installations for the C30. The one described Rod and Tom is the one I expected to encounter when I uncovered our steering cables. Instead, our installation features a pair of very large cable conduits, rather like hugely oversized motorcycle control cable sets, through with the steering cables are routed from the vertical position in the pedestal to the horizontal position at the steering quadrant. These conduits take the place of the pulleys Rod and Tom refer to.I contacted Edson who confirmed, with the appropriate tech drawing, that this was indeed an original Catalina installation.The conduits terminate at the aft end at a plate. They are each connected to the plate with a plastic fitting which both receives the conduit and adjusts its length. The latter function also serves to tighten and loosen the steering cable. If you have more than just a little bit of slop to get out of the steering system, I'd match the take up on both fittings.Edson is very helpful. In my experience, an e-mail to their tech service department has always resulted in a phone call within a few hours by a very knowledgeable technician who was instantly able to help me. Given that they are under no obligaton to provide this level of service to a 16 year old boat, which is not owned by the origianl purchaser, they are to be commended for their willingness to help and maintain their systems.