The old cable steering has been removed and I am starting to install the 'new' steering system. The original cable system mounted under the dash and it looks like this RideGuide needs to be mounted IN the dash. Because everyone that drives the boat is tall, I am mounting this as high in the dash as possible.

Because I don't have any directions and can't find any on the net, I made a pattern for the bolt holes and mounts out of cardboard. Lots of measuring and cutting and trial fitting just to get to this point. What complicates this is that the mounting bolts are square to the dash panel, but the steering shaft runs at an angle. Therefore I have to cut almost a slot to get this installed.

I will be installing some extra bracing on the back side of the dash, because I can see myself pulling myself up out of the seat with the steering wheel.

I have transfered the bolt pattern to the dash. I had to use a sharpie pen to get enough color on the old paint to see what I was doing.

The steering hub is setting on the top of the dash as it would be installed in the dash

We buffed most of of the old paint off the steering wheel with a wire brush in the grinder and applied a coat of primer to all surfaces. We had originally thought that this was a steel steering wheel, when it is actually aluminum.

One caution when using a wire brush in an angle grinder. When the wires come loose, and they will, they are traveling REALLY fast and will imded themselves in YOU. We used welding gloves to hold the wheel and the grinder to prevent anymore painful lessons.

Can't have the steering wheel looking nice and the mount look cruddy, so we stripped the paint off the base and primered it as well.

This primer says to recoat in 1 hour or after 48 hours. Well I missed the window and I guess I'll paint it next weekend.

We had some down time while the glass was setting up so we mounted the newly painted steering column in the boat. It really makes the old paint on the boat look BAD..

Not the best picture, kind of hard to get back far enough under the deck for a picture.

The silver metal across the top of the picture is a piece of angle Iron I added to the top mounting bolt to help strengthen the dash. I just had visions of someone (me) using the steering wheel to push themselves up from the seat and tearing the dash all up.

The gold / cadmium cylinder in the center of the picture is the 'rack' part of the steering system. I have installed this 'backwards' the cable is running around the port side of the boat. One reason for doing this is that the cable length is too long for the boat and it lets us 'burn up' some the length without having to coil the cable up somewhere.

Second the center of the column and thus the end of the rack is so close to the Starboard side of the boat that the bend in the cable would be very extreme. I had to swap around the mounting hardware, but its all bolted in nice and secure.

Now the steering wheel REALLY makes the paint on the boat look bad. But we will handle that later. Right now we need functionaly and in the water.

Having cleaned and greased all of the inner workings of the steering system this works so smoothly.

Well, we have learned allot about steering in trying to get this all connected. With the repairs on the boat to a point where we can install the outboard, we started to design the steering. I was in a hurry to get this on the water for vacation, so I didn't take pictures. I'll try to describe what went into the design.

The biggest issue in using a steering ram type system on an old outboard, is that the ram travels 8 inches, total and it takes 12 inches of movement, at the front of the outboard to turn it stop to stop. So how do you get full steering motion with this setup?

Well, you either use a lever to multiply the movement, see the next photos, or you move the attachment point of the steering ram back closer to the outboard's pivot point where less travel will accomplish the same thing.

After a number of prototype's this is the 'interum' steering setup. The steering tube is mounted in 3/4 inch plywood blocks that have been drilled to accept the steering tube. The blocks are bolted to the angle iron that is clamped under the outboard. This provides a solid attachment for the tube. In this setup there were several things to work around. 1. make sure you can tilt the motor up and not hit the mounts, that is why one of the blocks has the corner sanded off. 2. keep the ram and steering rod from hitting the fiberglass in the upper left of the photo.

The way we attached the steering rod that we bent from 3/8 inch plated steel, from HomeDepot, is a little complicated. We are using an older Mercury ride guide steering system that came as best we can tell off of a pontoon boat. The original tube mount has been scrapped in favor of the plywood blocks. The end of the steering ram has some couplers and a 5/8 inch ID loop on it. Since we am using a 3/8 inch rod to make the steering rod, we used a brass bushing that is 5/8 od and 3/8 id in the loop at the end of the ram. That way the steering rod fits securely in the end of the ram. Two locking nuts keep the rod secure in the ram.

What I was patterning this after is seen in the next photo...

Again, I don't recall where I got this photo from on the net and my appologies to the original poster.

This is a T&R Marine setup for old outboards, it sells for $150. Again because of low budget, I am building my own. I don't know for sure by just looking at this picture if that old 'Rude can be turned lock to lock with this setup.

The end of the rod at the OB, up under the motor where it can hardly be seen, is a 3/8 inch rod end, sometimes called ball end. To move the attachment point for the steering back closer to the pivot point, I attached a 3/16 inch thick plate to the front underside of the OB. The plate attaches to the OB via the front factory mounting holes and I drilled one hole in the casting for a 1/4 inch bolt that holds the back of the plate secure to the OB. There is also a 3/8 inch bolt through the plate that attaches the rod end of steering rod to the OB.

Here is a composite shot of the right and left side of the OB. The plate is SOOO close to the hood latch, that I actually had to turn the handle on the latch 180 degrees to make this work.

And this all BARELY clears when the OB is tilted up. The steering rod actually turns in the rod and and 'folds' itself further back under the motor. Thats also why the plate is full width on the left side and cut away on the right side to provide the clearance needed to tilt the motor up.

This is also whay I am looking to redesign this.

My current steering system works fine and it survived a week long family vacation with lots of tubing behind the boat. But I am not totally satisfied with the setup. At wide open there is TOO much play in the linkage and the motor moves around too much for me. Also when the steering ram is fully extended there is a large amount of downward torque that can some times bend the ram down as much as an 1/8 of an inch.

I don't like the plate I had to install under the OB, it makes access to the hood latch very difficult and its just not standard enough for me.

So, I found this setup on the net and this is where I want to go with the steering. It took me a while to figure out what is going on here, but this is a really sweet setup. That lever on the left actually 'amplifies' the range of motion of the steering ram. Its been too many years since geometry and physics class to figure this out real quick, but after sketching on a pad for a while, I figured it out.

If the point where the ram is attached to the arm is 4 to 5 inches from the arm's pivot point and the spot where the attachment to the motor is about 8 inches, then. Moving the ram 8 inches will move the end of that arm about 12 inches.

This also has the advantage that there is no up, down or side to side torque on the ram, all of that is asborbed by the arm.

I have some 1/4 inch aluminum plate and some UHMW plastic that will become the arm and bearing for the new improved steering system.

I'll get started on that once I get the rear seating in the boat done.