Steering and Shifter cables hard

[FuzzDaddy]

Hi everyone,
Took my 2002 Sea Ray 230 bow rider out today for the first time of the season. My steering is very hard. I have power steering fluid in the pump. I am assuming it's the original cable and needs to be oiled or replaced.
Same issue with the shifter lever cable. Can both cables be replaced while the boat is in the water? Also do I need to remove the cables from the boat to measure them so I can order new ones? The steering cable seems straight forward on how to replace. Remove the cotter and pin on the tube behind the engine and then undo the cable under the steering wheel, and then tie a rope to the cable on the engine side and pull it out the front. Reinstall by pulling the rope to feed the new cable in? Now with the shifter cable do I need to remove the whole shifter box mechanism behind the panel? That seems pretty hard to remove. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance
Corey

 

[Golfman25]

You're on the right track for the steering cable. There is writing on it which should tell you the lenght, although it may be faded by now. You can take the cable out, leave the rope behind, and measure and order the replacement.

 

[FuzzDaddy]

Ok perfect! One down and one to go. For the shifter cable is that easy? Do I need to remove the whole shifter box assembly behind the side wall?

 

[ASH]

The shift cable is actually 2 different cables. You can unhook the cables one at a time to figure out which one is bad. Should be easy to spot the shift mechanism in the engine compartment, often mounted on the exhaust manifold.

 

[FuzzDaddy]

I'm not near the boat. It's at the marina but I want to be prepared when I get there. If I need to replace the shift cables it it easy to do? Do I need to remove the shifter assembly?

 

[ASH]

I am most familiar with Bravo drives and usually the short cable from shift mechanism to outdrive would fail. It does require getting the boat out of the water. The drive needs to come off.

The shift cable from the helm could be diagnosed easily by unhooking in the engine compartment and moving the shift lever with the cable unhooked on the far end. It should move very easily. This cable is usually not bad to replace and would not require getting boat out of water.

 

[FuzzDaddy]

Thank you. Luckily the short cable is new. I'll replace the steering and long shift cable if needed this week. Thank you for your help!