Removal of Helm Seat Section on h260

[rcaw]

Greetings,

I have a 99 h260 and ran into a couple breakdowns this summer. The boat has wheel steering with gear and throttle controls for the outboard on the pedistal. The first problem was the gear linkage snapped/sheered off at the clevis pin at the top inside of the pedistal. I thought this looked secure inside and since I could still shift at the motor I decided to just wait to replace it after haul out this fall.

Then it seems that either this linkage or something else got tangled up with the steering chain and it ended up that the steering cables came off the sheeves and got jammed up. I could stick my head in the fuel locker under the helm seat and look up to the inside base of pedistal to see the cable off the sheeves.

The repair seems rather simple but getting to it is the hard part. Looking at this it appears that this entire section of the deck including the base of the pedistal and helm seat is removable, there is a clear seperation from the cockpit and screws all around. I am thinking that taking this off and rerunning/replacing the steering cabling and gear linkage would be easier than trying to fiche everything through.

Has anybody done this? any words of advise? I have not talked to anybody at Hunter yet.

Rick C.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

The Hunter 260 replaced the 26 which one of the main incorporations was wheel steering. Therefore, it was designed to incorporate two floors one for tiller and the other for wheel. The one for the wheel is reinforced so it will not flex with the wheel being attached.

There is no need to remove the floor. If you want to put a new steering cable on, the easiest way is to use a tube of some sort to run one end thru down to the pulley and thru. It has been some time so I can not remember what that chain looks like as to attachement on the wheel portion but if you can, use the tube again on the other side. Reattach. IF that is not the case, then get a small board with doulbe sided tape and attach the tape to one end of the small board and the chain to the other side and place it near the pulley/sheave. Then take something and force it thru. Once thru, I used a crow bar with the hooked end to grab the ends coming thru underneath and pulled them to a point I could reach them. This trick also worked for the 3300 cables for engine controls as well. Make sure you cross the cables when leading them back.

If there are any leaks in the rear berth, generally they are from the screw that hold the floor plate down. Simply take them out, clean the caulk off and reseal. I use to put a bead of silicon in the seam all around the floor bracket for my customers to keep debri out and to help alleviate any leakes. Hope this helps you.

 

[rcaw]

Thanks Dave,

If i can do the repairs without removing the floor that would be preferred. Your description makes sense so I wll try that. I have a small piece of PVC that may be perfect for the job.

Thanks,
RC

 

[Landlocked Todd]

I had a similar experience last year. I was installing the Edson gear shift and throttle on the pedestal and the steering cable got knocked off the port-side sheave underneath the pedestal. I didn't realize it and went to turn the wheel and the cable got wedged between the side of the sheave and the fiberglass frame. I ended up taking the cotter pin out of the shaft for the sheave to get it unjammed. Spent a lot of time upside down through the fuel locker getting light headed.

Good luck and I hope Dave's method works for you. I wouldn't want you to go through what I did.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

When running the 3300 cables, there is a small hole to run those cables adjacent to the hole for the wheel cable on the port side in the bottom of the stand.

 

[rcaw]

... Spent a lot of time upside down through the fuel locker getting light headed...

Yeah, this was the part I was trying to avoid with the removal strategy. I almost got stuck in there when I was trying to figure out what the problem was.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Yeah, I know about that one. One Saturday morning about 1 am, I was running cables and had my head upside down in the gas locker trying to reach for those cables underneath by hand and got stuck for 1 1/2 hours. I was yelling and the folks next door thought it was a putty cat screaming and my wife was upset not knowing if I was ok or not. I finally did a Houdini and wiggeled out. It was al little frightening which is why I started using my friendly curved end of the crow bar. I got home later and the Mrs. was thankful I was ok and then nailed by large butt. She thought I was kidding unitl I showed her the bruises around the waiste and she nixed working in the night at that point. It happenned right when the 260 first came out and I was doing all kinds of things which Hunter picked up and started adding based on my work to include controls for outboard motors on the wheel pedestal.