Old Starcraft (pre-1972) steering to motor connection question

[eric80233]

I have pre '72 Starcraft (no hull ID) that I've rebuilt, and now I'm trying to connect my motor to the steering cable. The steering cable end looks like the pic I'm sharing. There's nothing wrong with the steering or cable -- both move fluidly, so I don't want to replace the helm. The control arm I have is entirely too long to connect between the cable and the motor. Any ideas?

 

[jbcurt00]

Eric

I deleted the other duplicate topic.

If you dont get many replies here, we can move this to the steering forum.


On my cell, so i'll check your pix when i get to an actual computer.

 

[Watermann]

Hi Eric, could you post up a pic of what the front of the motor looks like where the ram end attaches. SO is the pic of your boats steering cable and ram? It doesn't look right to me, as the industry standard looks like the image below.

Your pic that you posted.

I'm wanting to see if your cable attaches in a tilt tube on the motor or if it's clamped to the transom. If that is a pic of your set up can you pull the ram out some so I I can see it better? Also what is the make, model and year of the motor?

 

[GA_Boater]

eric - you have a splashwell mount and it hooks up like so;

 

[home-boy]

I have what you need. I will post a pic in the morning for reference.

 

[eric80233]

Thanks for the responses.

I am connecting it to a '78 Evinrude 85hp, with tilt/trim.

I actually found a clevis in the garage last night after I wrote the post. I'm concerned that it won't fit for two reasons. First, the end of the steering cable is threaded (1/2" NF threads, I think). The hole in the cable may be too far starboard to make a good connection to the clevis (you can see this in the picture). Second, and I haven't confirmed this, I don't think that the bolts that came with the clevis kit will fit into the mounting hole in the steering linkage on the motor. I'll know more tonight when I try this (if it ever stops raining long enough).

I'm also concerned that the cable may not have enough play, or be at the wrong angle with respect to the motor tilting. The control arm that I took off had a ball joint on the motor end to allow for that movement, but it came out of a tilt tube steering system.

 

[eric80233]

Sorry, didn't answer all of the questions.

GA_Boater, yeah I realized that last night. Thanks for the confirmation.

Watermann, it looks like a standard splashwell mount. Does not attach to the tilt tube, nor any transom brackets. I agree that the cable end looks different, hence my apprehension that I mentioned above. I tried to make the end as short as possible to see if a standard tilt tube control arm would work, but the control arm is much too long.

In any event, I'll do some more investigation tonight after work.

 

[GA_Boater]

The splashwell mount I pictured imitates the tilt tube and uses a standard cable. The cable should be able to be removed and installed through the motor tilt tube and attach to the link rod. But something looks funky about the end of the cable in your pic in post #1. It should look like the cable end WM shows.

 

[eric80233]

GA_Boater, there's no way that cable will go through the tilt tube -- won't make the 15 degree turn into it. There's no flexible part of the cable to make that turn without changing out the cable (and probably more). And I agree it does look funky, but I think it's the stock Starcraft helm and cable. The boat is pre '72 because is has no hull ID, just a serial number plate.

 

[GA_Boater]

The cable will go through the tube and the tube is threaded for adjustment. The ram end of steering cables are all pretty much standard, so it had to fit.

 

[eric80233]

I think I found what i need. Teleflex has a rod end kit that looks like the right one. SA27276P is the part number. http://www.seastarsolutions.com/wp-...or-Tie-Bar-SA272776-SA27277-Rev.1-IS-7426.pdf.

 

[home-boy]

Here is what you need.

The ball mounts on the engine and the spring loaded connector screws onto the cable. I have a piece of my old cable screwed in to protect the threads.