How to Troubleshoot Stiff Steering on Outboard

Stiff Steering on your Outboard?

This week we had some relaxing fun hanging out with our boating friends at the Marina. The girls cleaned one of the boats. Deb and her friends raced a seaplane down the river. I would submit that they did quite well. The boatyard rough cleaned up the new fiberglass on the coach house wall to roof joint. Lastly, we did some work on the Dinghy.

Steering our Dinghy

How to correct stiff steering on outboard

The dinghy steering wheel has been hard to turn and not as “loose” as it used to be. Part of this has been from sitting and not getting a lot of water time. We will show how to troubleshoot where the problem lies. It could be in the steering wheel, steering cable, outboard pivot point or the tilt tube.

Cleaning the Dinghy

I bring my little helper along, and we get to work on it at our storage shed. We also get an impromptu rain shower that slowed down the work on the electrical system. It does, therefore, us a chance to show our method for getting the dinghy clean. Over the last year of not getting run, the dinghy started to get some mold and grime on its surfaces. When soap and water are not enough, the recommended solution to use for Hypalon is Toulene. PLEASE NOTE: This is for Hypalon. If you have a PVC dinghy, you should not use Toulene, for that it should be MEK (Methyl-Ethyl-Ketone). These are strong chemical, and if I can use something less intense, I like to start there.

What we used – Know your Material

We use a general spray degreaser that you can order online (or frankly may be in some stores) – Here is a link to the one we use. (Degreaser – https://amzn.to/2UfGynK)

We wet the surface, spray on the degreaser and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. Then we scrub with wet sponges that are made from melamine. Most people know this as “Magic Erasers,” but you can buy them in bulk and much cheaper. I went through about 8 of them doing the dinghy. At $4 per 2 sponges with the name brand getting these off brand ones are a great way to go. You can get off brand sponges here for a LOT less. – (sponges – https://amzn.to/2YNXDDW)

In the attached video, we will show you how to clean the dinghy AND repair the stiff steering.

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