Pontoon Boat Steering Cable

The anti cavitation plate is about 1-1/2 inches below the pontoon boat mounting plate that is under water. It is on the second hole set of the engine. One hole set above set above. Can't find any kinks in the steering cable and it is well lubricated.
I have been reading alot about pressure wave and operating location of the anti cavitation plate. The prop in the pressure wave can cause a lot of problems? It seems that I'm too deep and this is creating the torque I feel in steering. Just where is the reference location of the AC Plate to the logs or the mounting frame bottom on a pontoon boat? Or do I just go by the AC Plate should not be under water? I would like an on the ground reference diminision. This outboard weighs a ton. Trail and error is not a happy camper way to go.
The steering is through one cable push/pull. The steering cable is new. The motor turns easy enough by hand when out of water and I'm at the back of the boat moving it. Not real hard steering when not under power thru the steering wheel either. The motor "anti airation" plate is over a foot in the water with a normal load on the pontoon boat not under power. I contacted Mercery Marine in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. They gave me a diminision of 3 inches under the water for this "anti airation" plate as a minimum when not under power. Mercery says that being this deep will cause hard steering. To comply with the 3 inch min diminision, there isn't a way the rigging would allow this. I asked Mercery for a Maximum diminision and they said see a dealer for the reason they set this so low in the water? I have yet to get the dealer to agree that the boat steers hard. Fat chance they will agree it is set too low.
I assume Mercery calls the anti-cavitation plate anti-airation. I have picture ref.

what type of steering system is it?
as said, lubricating the cable isnt possible, should be sealed, meaning, it never needs lubricating. if the seal is gone, cable is shot, new cable job.
however, some older cables could be lubricated. depends on it its a pull cable. where you have 2 cables each side of the boat, qhich can usually be lubricated, by greasing the steering gear behind the helm and the exposed cables on full lock.
some of the, now outlawed, ball and socket cable systems could to. where the cale is hoooked to the engine, via a ball and socket joint in the middle. if yuo have this system, forget lubricating it, tear it off and fit a through hub steering system. that old system also can be hard to steer with.

as far the the water thing. could be a number of things. im douting the caviatation plate though. do you have a dolphin? umm, those plastic fns you can put on your cavitation plate that 'makes the boat faster' etc. if so, take that piece of crap off. all it does is adds wetted surface area and produces drag. they can cause spray to come up, at high speeds sometimes.


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over a foot under the water is too deep. umm you need to lift that up.
umm the easiest, but not maybe the cheapest, would be if you are lucky, and you have a 'long shaft' outboard fitted. theres usually 3 sizes manufacturers use.
short shaft, which is 15inch, long, which is 20onch, and extra long shaft, which is 25inches.

this measurement is the measurement from the mounting bracket, where it rests on the transom, or engine mount. down to the cavitation plate.

as a rule of thumb, to determin what shaft length your set up calls for, you measure from the top of the transom, to the bottom of the hull, then use which ever shaft length comes closest. for example, if it measures 19 inches, then you would use a long shaft motor. being a pontoon boat however, its not so easy, since, you dont have a keel line to measure to. so, one way s to take a length of wood, and hold it across the back, under the hulls, then measure from that wood, to the top of the transom, or engine brack, or whatever your engine mounts to.
most pontoon boats use long leg, (20") but it depends on th set up and how the engine is mounted.

thats the best way, but, might require high cost output to correct if you need to replace your engine. is possible to convert many outboards, as all it is is a difference in the prop shaft length, and leg length, but a cheaper alternative could be with use of a jacking plate. which allows you to raise the engine up on its mounting. i dont ike them on large engines, but that be a cheaper fix.

2006-04-17 13:40:49 by Joseph

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