Teleflex steering installation

[catmansteve]

I just bought a remote steer motor for my boat and had some questions about setting it up. I've never had a boat with remote steering, I have a decent understanding of how it works but I have no idea how to mount it and set it up. My biggest concern is the end of the cable that attaches to the motor; I see there's a "ram" on the end of the cable and a "steering arm" on the motor itself and a bolt/pin that connects the two, but I know the cable end has to be fastened to something in order for it to push and pull the steering arm..

I've searched high and low for a step by step tutorial on installing the teleflex system and can't seem to find anything. If anyone knows a link, or could even post pictures of the front of their motor/steering for reference it would be greatly appreciated. Here's what I've got

Here's the cable end that goes into the helm. Will this work with the basic teleflex helm?

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Hard to tell in your pic of the motor, but there should be a tube that the "ram" slides through and attaches to your motor via a steel rod. This is called the tilt tube. If there is not one on the motor you might have to get an after market transom mounting kit, what it does is it clamps onto the steering cable and bolts on the transom so you can steer. The are available at marine stores like west marine, boaters world etc.. I enclosed a pic of my motor if you look close at the front of the motor you can see how the cable runs through the tilt tube.

 

[catmansteve]

I see what you mean on yours, my motor is an 87 Johnson 40hp so I imagine it has the tilt tube, I just didn't know what I was looking for. Thanks for the help, and you've done an awesome job on your build

 

[catmansteve]

Yeah, my motor has a tilt tube, I just didn't know that's what it was... Now that I feel like a dummy I'm going to have another beer, maybe that will cure me :LOL2:

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Before you go to install the steering cable into the tube, take and clean the tube out real good, use some degreaser a rag or some emery cloth. Remove any old grease or rust, as this is a problem area for steering cables. What happens is later on the old grease hardens up and freezes the steering cable in the tube (especially from non use for extended periods of time). Most people will try to force the wheel to turn and wind up strippping out the helm. If you don't have a grease fitting on the tube, manually grease the cable and inside of the tube with some quality marine grease, it will save you some $ & headache later on. If you do this you should have trouble free steering for a long time.

 

[catmansteve]

The tube appears to be in good shape, as is the ram, but I'll be sure to clean the old grease out and lube with new grease. There's actually two grease fittings on the tube. I'll use emory cloth on the ram and a brush for cleaning copper pipe fittings to clean the tube, sound ok?

Thanks for all your help