Merriman Pedestial

[Patrick Lombard]

I have a Merriman Yacht Specialties pedestial steering. I am trying to replace the throttle cable but having trouble getting to the cable clamped to the inside the pedestial. Does anyone have suggestion for doing this operation? Where on the outer cable does the clamp go? Where the notch is? Does anyone have a manual or knows somewhere on the web where I can get a breakaway drawning.

 

[Steve Dion]

Screw on pedestal holds the cable housing.

Patrick:You are not the first to complain about this problem.You know about the screw on the pedestal? This holds both the throttle and the shifter cables. I think when you loosen the screw it may release both housings. Then you need to figure out how to get them both under the clamp, so you can tighten it. On our H'31 you can remove the cover under the pedestal and then have someone help you jockey each cable into position with the clamp loosened. Once the are back under the bracket, you SHOULD be able to adjust the cable and hook it to the lever/s.

 

[Patrick Lombard]

Steve D

Where does the cable sit in the clamp? (See drawing) I think it should be #2. The shift cable has its own clamp I don't see how it can bend back to the clamp for the throttle. I replaced the shift cable 2 months ago, it works find.I played with it all day and yes I unscrewed the clamp to much and it droped. Had to remove bottom plate to get it. Tomorrow I will remove pedestal and get clamp mounted again in the tube. %#&$^%#@#@%#$#$%@

 

[Fred Ficarra]

Patrick,

You don't mention the boat or year. On the YS pedestal of my 86 H34, it is IMPOSSIBLE to re-clamp the cable after loosening the screw at the rear of the pedestal. But it only takes a few minutes to slack the steering cables and drop the sheaves. After that's done, access inside the pedestal is a snap. Remember, these are production boats. That means it was put together by assembly-line workers. That means that there has to be a fast, easy way to do the job.

 

[Ian McGain]

Does this Help?

YS on my 1979 Hunter 30'

 

[Steve Dion]

Cable Housing part 3

Patrick:It is the cable housing that gets trapped in the clamp.The idea here is that you imobilize the housing so the cable can move inside it. There should also be the same type of arrangement on the other end.When I changed my fuel shut off, the cable did not have a fitting on the engine end. I ended up using a couple of small hose clamps to attach it on the engine end.

 

[Sam Lust]

Procedure that worked for me

It's quite a while ago but as I remember:Set up a clamp-on light shining up the pedestal from below. I had no need whatsoever to remove the sheaves. If you do you have to re-align them, but that might not be such a bad idea either.I used a very long flat blade screw driver shoived down the tube to guide the cable housing into the opening formed by the pedestal tube and the clamp piece which you hope hasn't fallen off the screw. Just about any sort of stiff stick will do the trick. Once you,ve guided the cable in, hold it in place while you run the screw in. With the lever in the idle position tighten the clamp on the cable housing. Assuming the cable is fastened properly at the engine you shoukld be ok. Not a great design but it seemed to more or less work.I swapped out the double lever arrangement for a single lever double function set-up like they're using on the newer boats. MUCH much better.

 

[Patrick Lombard]

Cable's In

Completely removed pedestal yesterday. Disconnected chain & cable steering ((spray painted section of gear & chain for replacement location)) to get at throttle cable clamp. Pickup A Edson cable clamp (see pic) but it did not work, old clamp welded to tube. It would of been a bigger job retro-fitting it so I stay with the old one. Once I was able to reach the clamp half in the tube, I used a 1" longer screw to hold the back half of the clamp. A little more wiggle room for the next time. And yes I found that #3 position in my earlier post is where the cable is clamp. All in all the job went pretty smooth. I just wish I had my camera with me, it would've made a good picture forum. By the way, my boat is a 1987 H-31PS: Thanks for all the help, This is a great web site!