Outboard manual steering woes? Here's a possible fix!

Pretty self explanatory stuff here. Welcome back as always.
Any outboard system that relies on manual steering (that goes without saying that power steering is excluded here) will have its quirks and require some maintenance in order to ensure trouble free operation of the outboard. This video covers a potential fix for the setup you currently have in place. If you haven't serviced your steering setup in a while, then this may be the video for you.
Lets get you out there!
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[@jaymz0074]

Awesome video. Thanks for Sharing.

[@extremeboating7347]

Thanks for watching!

[@rougetrader8]

Great! Thanks for sharing.

[@1SmokeyRider]

Needs more grease. There’s a fitting on the back to grease the whole thing.

[@extremeboating7347]

No I'm aware. I tried that grease fitting at the time and it did absolutely nothing for the situation which led me to the video you watched.

[@tone-np2mf]

thank you very much..you just saved me some money and time on my 2021 Boston whaler mercury 60 hp i was going to take my boat back to the dealer and hopefully it would be a warranty fix but the dealer told me they have to look at the problem to determine if it was a warranty fix so i decided to try your method and it worked out perfect but the only problem i noticed after greasing the O-ring looks like the O-ring starting to disintegrate (worn out) because of no grease the boat is steering great but do you think i should replace that O-ring because it sure freak me out when the steering lock up on the water .. my friend had the same problem on his 2019 mercury 40 hp and the dealer charged him $250 for the fix they told him the warranty would not cover too bad he didn't look at your KZbin channel first...

[@extremeboating7347]

Definitely replace the O-Ring. Any NBR (Nitrile Buna Rubber) or Viton O-Ring will work for it as long as it is the same size. The function of that ring is to prevent any water intrusion from getting in and contaminating, ultimately drying out the steering shaft and potentially even rusting it out. So I would definitely swap it out when you get the chance. It's a weird issue to have right, and one that's super annoying but surprisingly easy to fix. I'm glad it prevented you having to take it in because all these dealers and marine mechanics take 3 months just to change out a bolt on these things for some reason. Why bother when you can do it yourself for free, or cheap, all within 5 minutes!

[@tone-np2mf]

@@extremeboating7347 your exactly right..one more question if you don.t mind i also noticed that plastic nut i took off to get to the O-ring was very tight probably factory defect because i ordered this boat brand new from Boston whaler anyhow i noticed when taking off the plastic nut there plastic shavings falling to the floor of my boat then i look into the plastic nut and noticed the threads were torn and stripped...i did my best putting the nut back on semi-tight because if i go to tight it spins so i put it hand tight..do you have any suggestions where i might be able to order a new nut...thank you very much for your help..this is my first boat and retired and I've taken it out over 50 times the first year here in California ocean and i already did my 100 hour service at the dealer which was not cheap..thank you once again for the help

[@extremeboating7347]

You will have to purchase that nut directly from a Mercury dealer or from an online store that retails those. You can check boat outfitters, Leaders RPM, or Boats.net. I would definitely call a dealer or check the online Mercury parts catalog for the part number to the nut and then punch the number given to you into Google. That being said that nut is nothing but a retainer to keep the seal in place and as long as it threads in okay then I wouldn't lose any sleep at night over it. Because it's plastic it's easily fixable unless the threads are just totally gone. I would just spray some lube of some kind (WD40 would suffice) onto the threads if they are still there and then work the nut in and out several times until the threads self clean and self correct themselves.

[@tone-np2mf]

@@extremeboating7347 thank you very much for the advice and i will let you know how things turn out..

[@toasterj3643]

Is there a way to fix or repair a broken (rotted) steering arm bracket on a yamaha outboard v6 200 2 stroke - thanks

[@extremeboating7347]

I'd have to see a picture of it to tell you if you can or can't.

[@toasterj3643]

@@extremeboating7347 thanks for fast response , i just found out they have to remove powerhead because it is to rotted to weld a piece of steel to fabricate one - thanks

[@fishonkayakadventure]

"I did this a while ago" funny story, facts say otherwise. try using a grease gun twice a year. boats require CONSTANT maintenance. not just occasional touch ups

[@extremeboating7347]

Trying to grease it up using a grease gun was the first thing I tried doing before I tried this wise guy. Happy holidays.