Steering Noise

[Norris Johnson]

On a day sail this past weekend, I was on a port tack when I felt the wheel making a slight grinding noise when turning the wheel to starboard to compensate for too much sail being up. I was barefooted and I could feel a vibration under the cover for the emergency tiller. I haven't had a change to inspect this, but I will be back at my boat on Thursday and I will pull the cover and the panel in the aft cabin and check and inspect the chain, steering quad., and anything else that looks suspect.

Any ideas?

[Ron Hill]

Morris : I suspect that you'll find that one or both of the steering cables may have jumped off of the idler pulleys.  Loose steering cables !!

You'll need to put the cable(s) back on the idler pulley(s) and then take up the slack in the cables.  Both adjusting nuts need to be taken up at the same time.  

[Steve Hansen]

If in fact your steering cable jumped from one of the idler pulleys, be sure to check the cable for "meat hooks". When ours jumped off I believe it did make a grinding sound first. Upon closer inspection, I found some of the strands from the cable were damaged.

Steve

[John Gardner]

An alternative: I recently had a slight noise and stiffness of the wheel at a certain position, noticeable only when turning in one direction.  Adjustment was needed of the tightness of the drive band in the autopilot - it was binding slightly.  How to do it is described in the manual.

[Norris Johnson]

Thanks for the quick responce from all of y'all. I'll let y'all know what I find next week. Thanks again, Norris.

[Ron Hill]

Morris : As Steve mentioned you need to inspect those cables.

Take a piece of "Kleenex" and run it along the cables on each side.  If you have a break in the cable the "fish hooks" will snag the Kleenex and you'll see it immediately!!

You may even want to replace your old (worn) bronze pulley idler pins with stainless pins that Edson started installing in 1989.  A Thought  
Good Luck  

[Norris Johnson]

Problem solved!! Y'all were "right-on". The cable had about a 2 inch defelection.  Tighten it up to about 1" and wiped the cable (what I could reach) with a small amount of water-proof boat trailer axle grease. Checked the tightness of all of the nuts and bolts. Took the boat out on an over-nighter. Eveything worked great.
Thanks guys,
Norris

[sail4dale]

OK I give up.  Where is the take-up adjusting eye bolt located?  I've tried to read it in the Edson sheet but still can't locate it.

[SteveLyle]

There are two of them, one for each end of the steering cable where they attach to the steering quadrant.  Look at the quadrant and you'll see them.

[Ron Hill]

Dale : Here's how you get at the steering cable adjustment:
Remove the "Dog House" in the aft overhead of the aft cabin.   You'll be looking at the bottom of the Edson steering and you note 2 idler pulleys with the steering cables going aft on each side. You'll also be looking at the top of the aft water tank.
If you follow the cables aft you'll see the end of the threaded eye bolt, with 2 nuts on each threaded bolt end facing you.  
As I recall, it takes 16" of extensions on to a 9/16" deep well socket to reach them.  You should tighten each side equally by turning  both nuts simultaneously.  You'll need another person to turn the wheel.  As one side cable tightens the other side will become a little slack.  You don't want too much slack so it jumps off of the idler pulley.  Don't OVER-TIGHTEN.
If you need more room to work in, you  can remove the aft cabin port side panel and then the aft panel (they are interlocked).  It's very important that you note the long & short screws from the panel and the dog house.  Around the water tank, if a long screw gets replaced into a short screw hole you have "an owner induced hole"in the aft water tank.
After adjusting the cables for tension, you need to inspect them (see my post above) for fish hooks.  You also need to put some grease on each one of the cables and squirt some Teflon on the idler pulley pins to keep them lubed and turning freely.  As I mentioned in previous Mainsheet articles you need to inspect the steering pulleys every three or four years, to ensure that the pulleys are turning and the cable rides smoothly on each one.  

If you have removed both panels, you'll see that the fuel tank is fully exposed.  Read the message board posts and Mainsheet articles on fuel tanks and see if there is anything that you need to do while you happen to be in the area of the fuel tank.  As a minimum, inspect the hose clamps on the fill, vent, pickup tube, etc.  and the nuts that secure the positive and negative wires to the fuel sending unit.  Also look at the section of engine exhaust hose and ensure that it isn't chafing against any corner or sharp spot.  

It goes back together the opposite of what you took apart:  aft panel, port panel and then the dog house.  Again, watch the long and the short screws.  Good luck.