Stick Steering

[jcd]

Buddy at work has a stick steering boat...His throttle handle is a little stiff....Have to push with some force to get it all the way down..Anyone have any ideas on what it could be or do to help?..

Jeremy

["G"]

Steering cable needs to be pressure lubed.

[jcd]

Steering cable needs to be pressure lubed.

Thanks..How do you go about doing that?...Is it something you can do yourself?

Jeremy

["G"]

You can either get a boat shop to do it for you or you can buy a kit from them to do it yourself. I just have them do mine as it does not cost all that much. The kit to do it with as I recall cost a lot more than it does to just get them to do it.

["G"]

Oops...I am sorry....I thought you said steering cable. They may be able to lube your throttle cable as well....never had that done before so I do not know about it.

[striperking]

How old is boat,what kind of throttle cables,does it sit outside

[Fishtaco]

Buddy at work has a stick steering boat...His throttle handle is a little stiff....Have to push with some force to get it all the way down..Anyone have any ideas on what it could be or do to help?..

Jeremy

Several things can cause this. I would start at the engine and work forward from there. Disconnect the throttle cable at the engine and test movement. If its still stiff by hand, you have a problem on the engine side of things. Look for spots to clean and lube and look for bound up or bent. Don't reattach at this point. Leave it off.

If not, move to the drivers seat and put the shifter in neutral (no need to start the motor). Now, lift the fast idle, or pull the shift lever out to allow a neutral gear throttle advance. If its still stiff, then you most likely have a bad cable. I would replace both shift and throttle as they tend to corrode at about the same rate.

If its still stiff. Time to open the controller. Identify the throttle cable and disconnect from the controller and attempt to move the cable by hand. If you can easily move it, then you have a stiff/bound/bent/icked up controller and it will need some TLC/repair/replacement. If the cable is very stiff to move, replace it.

DO NOT try to lube this cable up and get some more life out of it. A busted cable at high or full throttle can surprise you and cause a serious accident and will cause your buddy to have to rename his boat to, "USS Toyota".