Jackplate and steering cable interference

[jim dozier]

Forum members have convinced me to bite the bullet and buy a jackplate. I've got a very nice Bob's Machine Shop jackplate and my Evinrude hanging from my garage door opening over the back of my boat. It appears that the steering cable will prevent me from moving the motor back to the new position on the jackplate. How common is it to have to slot the cable hole to allow rearward movement of the motor. Or am I being dense and missing something. I suppose if I had a wider stern and wider motor well this wouldn't be a problem but I don't and it is. Do I slot the hole? Need answers quick, can't shut my garage

 

[Dhadley]

Re: Jackplate and steering cable interference

Simple. The jackplate wont work for you. send it to me. Actually, I'll come get it.<br /><br />Sorry! Been a long day. Yes, sometimes the steering cable has to be rerouted. Sometimes its not long enough. Sometimes the up & down travel can be a problem. Yes, we have had to slot the hole sometimes. Other times we moved the cable to a totally new exit point.

 

[Dhadley]

Re: Jackplate and steering cable interference

I know thats not much help right now but we've run into thse problems too.

 

[jim dozier]

Re: Jackplate and steering cable interference

Yeah I figured as much. I just hate poking more holes in my boat. I went ahead and drilled another hole just for the steering cable about 4 inches closer to the transom and a little higher. It seems to work without binding the steering. I'll get a grommet to seal it up. Thanks for the advice. I had asked Bob's Machine Shop about this earlier and their guy said you don't usually need to do this but he probably was thinking about a newer designed boat which is probably constructed with a jack plate in mind. I had to redrill the transom side of the jackplate because the nimrod who rigged the boat originally didn't use a BIA template. Probably didn't have BIA back then