Squeak in steering quadrant

[Wayne]

On my way back to my slip this afternoon I started getting a 'chirp' or squeak from my steering quadrant.  We were in a hurry to get home, so I skipped hanging upside down in a locker to check it out.  Is there any kind of greasing or oiling I'm supposed to be doing as a regular maintenance thing?
Thanks for advice!

[Sailing Steve]

Yes, there is annual maintenance called for in the Edison manual.  Nothing too tough, but a bit of a pain to access some of the components.  If you don't have the manual, I suspect a check of Edison's website may have some literature.

[Stu Jackson]

www.edsonmarine.com

[John Sheehan]

Wayne,

If the squeak is in the quadrant and not the Edison pedestal then the Catalina manual recommends opening the hatch for the emergency tiller and just adding a little water down around the rudder post.  It says to use water and not oil or WD-40.  I have used water and it stops the squeak.

John

[Stu Jackson]

Might be interested in this FAQ:  http://www.c34.org/faq-pages/techdata-rudder-packing-gland.html

Catalina Direct also sells the whole rudder packing gland, and if you want a better picture of it, go to their website.

[Wayne]

Thanks for the responses.  I'll be working on this this coming weekend . . .

[Stephen Butler]

A couple of weeks ago, we lost our steering while entering the main Egmont channel into Tampa Bay...and of course the failure occurred as we were about to meet a container ship.  Had a few busy moments, but managed.  Turned out that the cable was "sawed" through by contact with the throttle linkage in the pedestal.  It was also an opportunity to use the emergency tiller (not easy, but doable, at least in a moderate "chop").  From this experience, we would recommend any unusual noises in the steering system be chased down immediately and that regular inspections of the steering system be made, particularly the alignment of the cabling going through the pedestal. Seems obvious now that we had a failure.  Just a thought.

[Ken Juul]

Had a very informative talk on steering system maintenance by the President of Edson at the Catalina Rendezvous.  He said many steering system problems are caused by the cables being too tight rather than too loose.  His suggested proper tensioning is to apply the wheel brake then adjust the cable tension until there is no play in the rudder head.   That should give about 1" of deflection in the cables at rest.  With the rudder hard over against the stop the loose side should have some slack but be tight enough not to jump out of the guides.

I know he is in the business of selling pedestals.  But he mentioned more than once, that if you are planning on doing an extensive electronics upgrade on an older boat it might be more cost effective to just by a new pedestal configured the way you want it than pay a yard the hourly rate to make the changes.  He said that care was taken to make the foot prints the same to minimize holes in the cockpit floor.  Might be worth looking into.

[Ron Hill]

Guys : This has been written before, but worth repeating:
Remove the "dog house" that covers the steering in the aft cabin.  Have a flashlight and another person.  Have that person turn the wheel all the way to one side.  As it starts look to make sure that the brass idler pulleys are turning.  Also note that in the slack cable there is only a slight sag.  If there is no sag it's too tight and too much sag and it could slip off of the pulley!!  Then have the wheel turned in the opposite direction and check that side for the same items. 
If you take off the side and aft panels take a piece of Kleenex and wipe down the steel cables.  If there is a broken strand it will snag the Kleenex to let you know!!  Then re grease the cables.
If you tighten the cables make sure that you use a deep well socket and turn both nut at the same time.