The steering in the Hondo has been stiff for a while now, so I decided to pull the rack and cable assembly. The rack is a Kiekhaefer/Mercury with a Ride Guide cable. The rack looks to be in excellent condition but the cable will not move by hand.
From what I've been able to determine the cables have been disconntinued (I'll call Tom tomorrow
)
If anyone have a suggestion, please let me know.
In the mid-90's I needed a cable for the same system. All the hot rod boat shops in my area told me that cables weren't available and I would have to buy a complete new system. They were
wrong. I went to a regular marine parts dealer and not only did he have Mercury Quicksilver cables, but also a box of the "racks" that the cable connects to inside the helm. Price out the door was less than a new system and all the additional parts required to go with it. From the looks of your steering extension, You'll be into some bucks to retrofit a new setup.
So, if you want to try checking, it was:
Park Presidio Marine(located in San Francisco)
(415) 821-2628
I --might-- still have my old setup in the garage(I saved it, but scrapped the boat). It only had about 5 summers of light use on it. If it's the same length cable you need, you can have the whole deal for the cost of shipping. Just measure the length of the cable housing and let me know.
nah...thats anything but standard...the pump end is standard. but the wheel side is nothing i have seen before...its not a rotory or rack style.....good luck....let us know what ya find!
Brad, that was a very common system back in the day..... Much beefier than the "rack-in-the-box" type systems available today.